Saman Samadi
Saman Samadi (born 1984) is a Persian-American composer, performer, music scholar, and current doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge.
Biography
Over nearly two decades, Saman Samadi's prolific repertoire of orchestral, chamber, solo and electro-acoustic music has been performed internationally — in the mid & far East, Europe, and on both coasts of the United States. His music was inspired early by those composers who are known under the rubric New Complexity; however, in 2010, he commenced to develop his unique compositional approach, one which entails a new pitch space, utilising microtonal modes derived from traditional Persian music, multilayered & heterophonic textures, complex polyrhythms & polymeters; all traced within a detailed system of musical notation permitting replication. He received his degree in Mathematics from NODET, an Iranian educational institution for mathematical prodigies. He studied Philosophy and Critical Thinking at the University of Queensland, and Artistic Research at Orpheus Institute & Leuven University. He earned his BA in Music Performance & MA in Composition from the University of Tehran where he studied with Alireza Mashayekhi. From 2006 to 2009, Samadi was the director of the Concentus Orchestra, a mix of musicians from the Tehran Music Conservatory and the University of Tehran. He is a first-prize winner of the 2012 Counterpoint-Italy International Composition Competition and the 2009 Fajr International Music Festival. His work was selected for a premiere at the 2014 New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. In 2013, he was offered a scholarship for doctoral studies in Composition at the State University of New York where he studied with Daria Semegen, to whom he was also an assistant at the Electronic Music Studio in Stony Brook. For the past half-decade, Samadi has been an active performer in New York City's Downtown Scene of experimental music and free improvisation. In 2018, he invited various alumni from the Manhattan School of Music to form the Saman Samadi Quintet. He is also the leader of two NYC-based ensembles, Āpām Napāt Trio, and Aži Trio. In 2015, Samadi was awarded an Artist Diploma from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). He is a former faculty member of the Music School of New York City, the Piano School of NYC, and the Editorial Officer of the Wolfson Research Event 2021. Samadi is the founder and director of the Cambridge University Experimental Music Ensemble. His current research is under the supervision of Richard Causton. Samadi is a Grantham Scholar and the President of Wolfson College Music Society at the University of Cambridge.
List of works
- Shattering in Seven Pieces for Dream and Wedding and Death, for string quartet — 2022
- Avec Boulez, Mallarmé, et Foucault, for ensemble — 2022
- Through a Veil, for wind quintet and fixed media — 2021
- Thus Spoke Earth, for violin and piano and fixed media — 2021
- Vāyuvēra, for Piano Trio — 2021
- Ānam Ārezust, for Ensemble — 2020
- Aša, for Flute — 2020
- The Gāthās for Piano — 2018–2019
- Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza I
- Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza II
- Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza III
- Mira, for Violin and Electronics — 2015–2019
- Scheherazade, Saxophone Quartet No.2 — 2017
- Nostalgia, An electroacoustic album including five pieces – Samadis’ Records Released: November 7, 2016
- Ghorbat
- Berceuses
- Vāyu
- Retroception
- Hura
- Chamrosh, Works for Saxophone – Samadis’ Records Released: April 1, 2016
- Chamrosh, for Tenor Saxophone
- I-V-complex No.1, for Alto Saxophone and Piano
- I-V-complex No.2, for Saxophone Quartet
- Before Your Very Eyes, for Saxophone and Piano
- Apām Napāt, An electroacoustic album including sixteen pieces – piano, reeds, buchla – Samadis’ Records Released: February 27, 2016
- Ap
- Asha
- Daeva
- Yima
- Ariyāramna
- Vivanhant
- Haoma
- Verethragna
- Yasna
- Apām Napāt
- Anahita
- Hauruuatāt
- Ahura
- Manu
- Zahhak
- Mithra
- Shekasteh Mouyeh, An electroacoustic album including nine pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: February 23, 2015
- Frenzied
- Shattered Mourning
- Injustice
- Desolation
- Ramkali
- Zenith
- Dissident
- Dashtestani
- Satori
- U-Turn, An electroacoustic album including five pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: March 14, 2015
- Safhe-ye Nakhl (Palm Plate), for Dozaleh, Piano, Tape and Live Electronics (2014)
- Amiri, for Electronics (2012)
- Ghatar-e Arvah (Ghosts' Train), for Electronics (2010)
- Magnapinna in Abdomen of a Newborn, for Electronics and video (2012)
- U-Turn, for Electronics and video (2011)
- Microtonal Piano Solos, An album including eleven pieces as a set, Samadis’ Records Released: January 7, 2015
- Oracle
- Solitude
- Sisyphus
- Annica
- Perception
- Madman
- Satire
- Existence
- Deprivation
- Magnetic
- Subjectivity
- Teryan, for Violin and Piano — 2014
- Persia 1909, for Chamber Ensemble — 2014
- Panj, for Orchestra — 2013
- Gulhannai, for Piano — 2013
- Tears' Scratch, for Violin duo — 2012
- La Nausée, for Piano — 2012
- Sound and Fury, for Chamber Orchestra — 2012
- Paj, for Flute and Piano — 2011
- Bazzad, for Violin and Symphony Orchestra — 2011
- Symphony in Three Movements, for Large Orchestra — 2009
- Impromptu, for Piano — 2008
- Wine, for Piano — 2008
- Eastern Rhapsody, for Piano — 2008
- Sonatina, for Piano — 2008
- Fog & Fugue, for Guitar — 2007
- Camisado, for Chamber Orchestra — 2007
- Is This the World We Created...?, for Alto, Baritone, Choir, and Orchestra — 2007 Duet for Horn and Piano, for Horn and Piano — 2007
- Nausea, for Orchestra — 2007
- A Piece for Violin and Orchestra — 2007
- Two Nights, for Oboe, Horn, Violin, Cello, and Piano — 2007
- Sheyda, for String Orchestra — 2006
References
University of Cambridge, Faculty of Music
Research Catalogue - an international database for artistic research