University of Colorado Colorado Springs professor Haleh Abghari is being remembered for her contributions to the university’s music courses, campus initiatives, faculty assembly and support for struggling students.

Abghari, 54, was found dead Aug. 7 at her home on the city’s east side.

“Haleh was a tremendous music artist, a sharp intellectual, and a compassionate mentor,” the UCCS Theatre program wrote in a Facebook post.

Abghari was a member of the university’s department of visual and performing arts since 2015.

Beyond the campus, Abghari was also known as a celebrated singer who had collaborated with composers as a solo vocalist on original music and performance pieces.

Her performances received critical acclaim from The New York Times and The Washington Post over the years when she traveled the world with various acts performing contemporary classical music that often integrated theater, philosophy and arts.

According to her website, she was the only woman to perform as King George III in “Eight Songs for a Mad King” by Peter Maxwell Davies, a solo piece known for its technical and emotional challenge for performers.

Those who knew Abghari remember her as a “fragile, but strong’ woman who was equally passionate about family and social justice as she was about music.

“I’m just so shocked because she was always advocating for gun-control laws and antiwar movements and holding benefit concerts at the school,” her sister Niloofar Abghari said. “Whoever killed her killed her entire family.”

Abghari was a native of Iran and her family moved to California when she was 15 to escape the conflict of the Iran-Iraq War. She took a quick interest and natural penchant to singing and the performing arts during high school, which brought her to the University of California Davis in 1988.

It was during this time that she met Laurie San Martin. They would bond over playing music late at night and working in the music department.

“She was a really good singer and a really good performer,” San Martin said. “And it’s not a big program so she really stood out there.”

The two remained friends for the rest of Abghari’s life as she went on to earn her master’s degree at the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University and Martin received a doctorate from Brandeis University.

In 2011, the two collaborated on the chamber opera “Conference of the Birds Unfeathered,” an adaptation of the epic tale by the Persian poet, Attar. Earlier in 2002, Abghari served as the officiant at Martin’s wedding.

The death of Abghari is the latest in a string of losses in the school’s visual and performing arts department over the past year. Robert von Dassanowksy, the university’s founding director of the film studies program, died in October. Samuel Knopp, a student enrolled in the program, was killed in a dorm shooting on campus in February.

“We ask now that the entire campus wrap their arms around our students and colleagues in VAPA and offer thoughts, prayers, and support as they work through another very difficult time,” UCCS Chancellor Jennifer Sobanet wrote in a campus email.

Following Knopp’s death, Abghari testified at the state capitol to advocate for stricter gun laws. It was the latest of many examples of advocating for social change, including a UCCS fundraiser for Ukraine in 2022.

Martin was hesitant to call her an activist, given the various connotations associated with the term, but noted that Abghari was never afraid to stand up for what she believed in.

“And that might sound like she was being combative, but she was just so charismatic and so understanding and she had a deep love of people,” San Martin said.

“She was clear, she was really intelligent and well-read. And I think that her own experience escaping the war in Iran, I think it gave her a deep sense of empathy for people who were compromised and had no sense of support.”

San Martin started a GoFundMe campaign to help Abghari’s family cover various expenses in the wake of her death.

Two separate memorial services are planned in the upcoming weeks. A service by the university is tentatively planned on campus, while a private service will be held in California. No dates have been announced.

UCCS said that its wellness center has added walk-in mental health appointments for its students this week between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Assistance for staff and faculty is available in the Veteran Health and Trauma Clinic this week.

Colorado Springs police have not announced an arrest or suspect information in Abghari’s death, which is being investigated as a homicide.

Police ask that anyone with information call 719-444-7000 or Pike Peak Crime Stoppers at 719-634-7867.

Abghari’s death comes as she was preparing to rejoin her family in California, Niloofar Abghari said.

“She had planned to move here next year,” Niloofar Abghari said. “She was just looking at houses here two weeks ago.”