Sami Seif
Lebanese composer and music theorist Sami Seif (b. 1998) has been praised as “a distinctive compositional voice” who creates “intoxicating and fascinating soundworld[s]” (Carla Rees, Pan Journal of the British Flute Society). Described by George Grella of New York Classical Review as “gorgeous” and “expressive,” Seif’s music is inspired by the aesthetics, philosophies, paradigms and poetry of his Middle-Eastern heritage. His latest musical concerns center around the phenomenology of time and of differing degrees of focus.
An enthusiastic collaborator, Seif has worked with numerous renowned musicians. Previous and upcoming collaborators include Mary Kay Fink and Stanley Konopka of The Cleveland Orchestra, Carla Rees, Josh Modney, ETHEL, Marcelo Lehninger, the Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra, TAK Ensemble, Earplay, TEMPO Ensemble, Ensemble 126, Ensemble Metamorphosis, among others. Seif’s music has been recognized internationally by various institutions such as ASCAP, SOCAN, the Society for New Music, the RED NOTE New Music Festival, the Metropolitan Youth Orchestra of New York, the New York Composers Circle, the Foundation for Modern Music, the Ohio Federation of Music Clubs, the Cleveland Composer’s Guild, among others.
Additionally, he was selected as a finalist for the 2019 Kaleidoscope Chamber Orchestra call for scores from a pool of more than 2200 applicants from more than 90 countries. In 2020, he was selected again from a larger pool of almost 8000 applicants. Seif has been accepted to multiple prestigious artist residencies, including MacDowell and Millay Arts.
Originally from the mountain town of Ashkout in Lebanon, Seif was born in Abu Dhabi to a non-musical family and is fluent in Arabic, French, and English. At twelve, he began composing and performing on Arabic microtonal keyboards as a self-taught musician. Without access to formal musical training, he taught himself notation and theory through textbooks before later pursuing formal studies in piano, composition, audio engineering, and sound synthesis.
Seif earned a B.M. in composition and music theory from the Cleveland Institute of Music, where he received the Donald Erb Prize in Composition and the Beth Pearce Nelson Award in Music Theory. He is currently a Doctoral Fellow at the CUNY Graduate Center in New York City.
