Saman Samadi
Saman Samadi (born 1984) is a Persian-American composer, performer, and current doctoral researcher at the University of Cambridge. 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 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, using microtones 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 City University of New York, 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. References. University of Cambridge, Faculty of Music Research Catalogue - an international database for artistic research