Fariba Hedayati Nikfekr, was born in Tehran in a family with great love for traditional Iranian music and was introduced to this art at an early age by his father who also played ney. In 1982 she began her tutorship of the setar with Ata’ollah Janguk, the renowned master of this instrument. She was tutored by Janguk in various radifs of traditional Iranian music for five years. In order to further her knowledge of various styles of playing setar, Fariba continued her training with such masters of this art as Ahmad Ebadi, Jalal Zolfonun, Hossein Alizadeh, and Daryush Talayi.

Since 1987, Fariba was tutored by Hossein Alizadeh to whom she owes most of her expertise in this field. Her first public performance was as a member of Khojaste group, comprising exclusively of Iranian women, which performed a concert at Rudaki Concert Hall in Tehran under the leadership of Ms. Susan Aslani (Dehlavi) in 1992.

Ava-ye Dust group was formed by Fariba in 1994 and has since performed several concerts both in Iran and abroad under her leadership. The music performed at these concerts comprised entirely of her own composition. Her participation in various international festivals as leader of the first traditional Iranian musical group comprising solely of Iranian women since the Islamic Revolution has served to reintroduce this concept to the international community. Two albums of her concerts, entitled Rozane, and Aseman performed in Morocco (the Fez Festival), have been published abroad. Fariba has also released in Iran two original compositions, namely The Drop (setar and tombak duo) as well as Comfits and Candies (children songs). In addition to composition and performance of concerts, Fariba has also been engaged in teaching setar students inside and outside Iran for more than 30 years.

Fariba currently lives in Vancouver, Canada.