Saman Samadi


Saman Samadi is a Persian-American composer, experimental performer, artistic researcher, and philosopher of music with a prolific body of work spanning nearly twenty years. He earned his PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Biography

Saman Samadi's compositional repertoire includes orchestral, chamber, solo, and electroacoustic pieces, which have gained international exposure through performances across various regions, including the Middle East, the Far East, Europe, and the United States. His research is centered on contemporary Western art music and Persian classical music, with a particular emphasis on advancing novel compositional approaches and musical experimentalism. He integrates creative practices with scholarly pursuits in cultural studies, musicology, theory, and philosophy.
Samadi's compositions, characterized by a melding of complexity and expressivity, incorporate influences from Persian Classical music, poetry, language, visual arts, and postmodern philosophy. His work employs microtonal modes derived from Persian classical music, creating a unique pitch space with heterophonic textures, polyrhythms, and polymeters.
Samadi reimagines Persian calligraphy, incorporating it as both visual and structural elements in his Augenmusik scores, thus creating a multi-dimensional experience that echoes with philosophical and poetic qualities.
As a scholar, Samadis research interests span a wide spectrum of interdisciplinary areas, including ethnomusicology, composition, poststructuralism, semiotics, music and identity, linguistics, aesthetics of modernism and postmodernism, conceptual history, continental philosophy, Deleuze and Guattari, complexity, music notation, experimental music, and performance practice of new music.
Saman Samadi began his education at NODET, a renowned institution for mathematical prodigies in Iran, where he obtained a degree in Mathematics and Physics. He continued his studies in Philosophy and Critical Thinking at the University of Queensland, and Artistic Research at the Orpheus Institute and Leuven University. He earned a Bachelor of Arts in Music Performance and a Master of Arts in Composition from the University of Tehran. Samadi studied composition with Alireza Mashayekhi, who was a student of Hanns Jelinek, a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg and Alban Berg. Samadi directed the Concentus Orchestra from 2006 to 2009, an ensemble composed of musicians from the Tehran Music Conservatory and the University of Tehran. He received recognition by winning the first prize at the 2012 Counterpoint-Italy International Composition Competition. In 2014, his work was selected for premiere at the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival.
From 2013 to 2020, Samadi actively participated in New York City's experimental music scene. In 2018, he founded the Saman Samadi Quintet, bringing together alumni from the Manhattan School of Music. He also led two other ensembles based in New York City: the Apām Napāt Trio and the Aži Trio. In recognition of his contributions to the performing arts, particularly as an experimental music improviser, the New York Foundation for the Arts awarded him an Artist Diploma in 2015. Samadi has served as a faculty member at the Music School of New York City and the Piano School of NYC. Samadi has served as the Editorial Officer for the Wolfson Research Event at Cambridge and actively participates in reviews for reputable journals, including the Journal for Artistic Research.
Samadi conducted his doctoral research from 2020 to 2023 at the University of Cambridge under the supervision of Richard Causton and Peter McMurray. His academic achievements were recognized and supported through his appointment as a Dr Grantham Scholar. Samadi founded and led the . During his time at Cambridge, Samadi served as President of the Wolfson College Music Society and academic supervisor at the .

List of works

Shattering in Seven Pieces for Dream and Wedding and Death, for string quartet — 2022Avec Boulez, Mallarmé, et Foucault, for ensemble — 2022Through a Veil, for wind quintet and fixed media — 2021Thus Spoke Earth, for violin and piano and fixed media — 2021Vāyuvēra, for Piano Trio — 2021Ānam Ārezust, for Ensemble — 2020Aša, for Flute — 2020The Gāthās for Piano — 2018–2019
  1. Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza I
  2. Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza II
  3. Ahunavaiti Gāthā no.1, stanza IIIMira, for Violin and Electronics — 2015–2019Scheherazade, Saxophone Quartet No.2 — 2017Nostalgia, An electroacoustic album including five pieces – Samadis’ Records Released: November 7, 2016
  4. Ghorbat
  5. Berceuses
  6. Vāyu
  7. Retroception
  8. HuraChamrosh, Works for Saxophone – Samadis’ Records Released: April 1, 2016
  9. Chamrosh, for Tenor Saxophone
  10. I-V-complex No.1, for Alto Saxophone and Piano
  11. I-V-complex No.2, for Saxophone Quartet
  12. Before Your Very Eyes, for Saxophone and PianoApām Napāt, An electroacoustic album including sixteen pieces – piano, reeds, buchla – Samadis’ Records Released: February 27, 2016
  13. Ap
  14. Asha
  15. Daeva
  16. Yima
  17. Ariyāramna
  18. Vivanhant
  19. Haoma
  20. Verethragna
  21. Yasna
  22. Apām Napāt
  23. Anahita
  24. Hauruuatāt
  25. Ahura
  26. Manu
  27. Zahhak
  28. MithraShekasteh Mouyeh, An electroacoustic album including nine pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: February 23, 2015
  29. Frenzied
  30. Shattered Mourning
  31. Injustice
  32. Desolation
  33. Ramkali
  34. Zenith
  35. Dissident
  36. Dashtestani
  37. SatoriU-Turn, An electroacoustic album including five pieces, Samadis’ Records Released: March 14, 2015
  38. Safhe-ye Nakhl, for Dozaleh, Piano, Tape and Live Electronics
  39. Amiri, for Electronics
  40. Ghatar-e Arvah, for Electronics
  41. Magnapinna in Abdomen of a Newborn, for Electronics and video
  42. U-Turn, for Electronics and video Microtonal Piano Solos, An album including eleven pieces as a set, Samadis’ Records Released: January 7, 2015
  43. Oracle
  44. Solitude
  45. Sisyphus
  46. Annica
  47. Perception
  48. Madman
  49. Satire
  50. Existence
  51. Deprivation
  52. Magnetic
  53. 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