Saman Samadi

Saman Samadi (born 1984) is a Persian-American composer, performer, and artist-researcher. He is currently undertaking research at the University of Cambridge pursuing a Doctor of Philosophy in Music.

Saman Samadi (2013)

Biography

Saman Samadi's work has been performed internationally—in the mid & far East, Europe, and on both coasts of the United States. His prolific repertoire of orchestral, chamber, solo and electro-acoustic music has been performed and recorded by many musicians, including Jonathan Powell, Jared Redmond, Miranda Cuckson, Austin Wulliman, Linda Wetherill, Kristin Barone-Samadi, Anthony Izzo, Ensemble ECHO, Stony Brook Symphony Orchestra, Jaram Kim, Erika Dohi, and Daniel Keene.

Samadi's works have been extensively performed at numerous venues, among them, New York's Lincoln Center, Spectrum-NYC, Abrons Arts Center, Harvestworks; LaGuardia Performing Arts Center, and LeFrak Concert Hall at the Aaron Copland School of Music in Queens; the Firehouse Space, Scholes Street Studio, and ShapeShifter Lab in Brooklyn; Staller Center for the Arts in Stony Brook, the San Francisco Center for Music in California, Queen's University Belfast in Northern Ireland, the Hangyang University of Seoul in South Korea, the Museum of Modern Art André Malraux (MuMa) of Le Havre in France, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague (HAMU) in the Czech Republic, NeoArte Festival of Gdańsk in Poland, Avini Hall at the University of Tehran, and Roudaki Hall, Iran's most prestigious music space.

Samadi has been active in New York City's downtown scene performing there since 2015. In 2018, he invited various alumni from the Manhattan School of Music to form the Saman Samadi Quintet. In 2016, Samadi invited German Buchla player, Hans Tammen, and American clarinettist Blaise Siwula to collaborate in a structured, yet free, improvisational performance, which led to the formation of the Āpām Napāt Trio. Samadi is also the founder and leader of the improvisatory New York-based ensemble, Aži Trio.

Saman Samadi's music was inspired early by those composers who are known under the rubric New Complexity (James Dillon, Brian Ferneyhough, Richard Barret, and Michael Finnissy); however, in 2010, he developed his own unique compositional method, one which entails a new system of pitch organization, using microtonal scales derived from traditional Persian modal music, multilayered textures, complex polyrhythms, and polymeter; all traced within a detailed system of musical notation permitting replication. An interest in electroacoustic music led him to prepare 30 pieces from which four albums have so far resulted. Samadi has recorded several albums of music, including Microtonal Piano Solos, Shekasteh Mouyeh, U-Turn, Paj, Scheherazade, Tears’ Scratch, Āpām Napāt, Chamrosh, and Nostalgia.

Samadi received his degree in mathematics from NODET, an Iranian educational institution for mathematical prodigies. He then entered the University of Tehran as an undergraduate student in Music Performance, where he earned his master's degree in Music Composition. While studying there, Alireza Mashayekhi, an internationally regarded composer who also utilizes the Persian microtone system in his work, became his teacher. Mashayekhi has deeply influenced Saman's musical sensibilities, and his mentorship lit the flame that kindled in Saman his abiding passion for modern music.

From 2006–2009 Samadi was the director and conductor of Concentus Chamber Orchestra, a mix of musicians from Tehran Conservatory of Music and the University of Tehran. Their repertory incorporated Baroque and contemporary works, including Samadi's own compositions.

In 2009, Samadi won an award for one of his chamber music composition at the 24th Fajr International Music Festival. His composition Paj, won first prize at the 2012 Counterpoint-Italy International Composition Competition. His work, Magnapinna in Abdomen of a Newborn, was selected for a premiere at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival in June 2014. In 2015, the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) awarded Samadi an Artist Diploma in Multimedia and Performing Arts.

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, an award-winning American composer. Samadi was also her assistant at the analogue studio of electronic music which Semegn designed, there, in collaboration with Bülent Arel, in the 1970s. During that same year up to 2017, Samadi acted as an assistant to Dr Sandra Sprecher, director of the contemporary music venue, The Firehouse Space in Brooklyn, New York. Saman is the director and co-founder of the Samadis’ organization, a contemporary music record label based in New York City, by which he organized an annual international composition competition and concert series, from 2014 to 2018. Samadi is a former faculty member of the City University of New York, Music School of New York City, and the Piano School of NYC. His research at Cambridge University is under the supervision of Professor Richard Causton. Samadi is a Grantham Scholar and the President of the Music Society at Wolfson College, Cambridge, where he is also the Editorial Officer for WRE 2021, a conference showcasing the research of students from the college, and St Antony’s, University of Oxford.

List of works
  • Vāyuvēra, for Piano Trio — 2021
  • Ānam Ārezust, for Ensemble — 2020
  • Aša, for Flute — 2020
  • Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza III, from The Gāthās for Piano — 2019
  • Mira, for Violin and Electronics — 2015–2019
  • Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanzas I & II, from The Gāthās for Piano — 2018–2019
  • Scheherazade, Saxophone Quartet No.2 — 2017
  • Nostalgia, An electroacoustic album including five pieces – Samadis’ Records Released: November 7, 2016
  1. Ghorbat
  2. Berceuses
  3. Vāyu
  4. Retroception
  5. Hura
  • Chamrosh, Works for Saxophone – Samadis’ Records Released: April 1, 2016
  1. Chamrosh, for Tenor Saxophone
  2. IVcomplex No.1, for Alto Saxophone and Piano
  3. IVcomplex No.2, for Saxophone Quartet
  4. 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
  1. Ap
  2. Asha
  3. Daeva
  4. Yima
  5. Ariyāramna
  6. Vivanhant
  7. Haoma
  8. Verethragna
  9. Yasna
  10. Apām Napāt
  11. Anahita
  12. Hauruuatāt
  13. Ahura
  14. Manu
  15. Zahhak
  16. Mithra
  • Shekasteh Mouyeh, An electroacoustic album including nine pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: February 23, 2015
  1. Frenzied
  2. Shattered Mourning
  3. Injustice
  4. Desolation
  5. Ramkali
  6. Zenith
  7. Dissident
  8. Dashtestani
  9. Satori
  • U-Turn, An electroacoustic album including five pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: March 14, 2015
  1. Palm Plate, for Dozaleh, Piano, Tape and Live Electronics (2014)
  2. Amiri, for Electronics (2012)
  3. Ghost Train, for Electronics (2010)
  4. Magnapinna in Abdomen of a Newborn, for Electronics and video (2012)
  5. U-Turn, for Electronics and video (2011)
  • Microtonal Piano Solos, An album including eleven pieces as a set, Samadis’ Records Released: January 7, 2015
  1. Oracle
  2. Solitude
  3. Sisyphus
  4. Annica
  5. Perception
  6. Madman
  7. Satire
  8. Existence
  9. Deprivation
  10. Magnetic
  11. 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
  • Foolish, for Chamber Orchestra — 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
  • Ravani, for String Orchestra — 2006

References

University of Cambridge, Faculty of Music

Research Catalogue - an international database for artistic research

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