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Biography
Arshia Samsaminia (*b. 1989, Tehran, Iran*) is a contemporary composer currently pursuing a Ph.D. at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece, under the supervision of Professor Dimitri Papageorgiou. Samsaminia studied contemporary composition at leading institutions, including the Sibelius Academy of Music in Finland, the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, the University of Arts Berlin in Germany, the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Tbilisi State Music Conservatory in Georgia. He studied microtonal composition with Marc Sabat at the University of Arts Berlin and worked with mentors such as Helena Tulve, Malin Bång, Manolis Vlitakis, Tapio Tuomela, Ole Lützow-Holm, and Maka Virsaladze, among others.
His recent professional achievements include guest lecturing at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2024, and serving as a member of the Artistic Committee at the Sound and Music Computing Festival in Porto, Portugal. In 2023, he was invited as a guest lecturer at the Sibelius Academy of Music in Helsinki, Finland, and was awarded first prize at the Remus Georgescu International Composing Competition in Timisoara, Romania. In 2022, Samsaminia was the resident composer at the Klangteppich Festival in Berlin, supported by the German Federal Cultural Foundation. In 2020, he was a finalist for the Jonathan Harvey Scholarship at Huddersfield University in the United Kingdom.
Throughout his career, he has collaborated with renowned ensembles and orchestras, including Klangforum Wien, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Musikfabrik, Ensemble Garage, Stockholm Saxophone Quartet, Trio Estatico, Trio Saeitenwind, Ljubljana Contemporary Chamber Ensemble, KLART Ensemble, EMTA Tallinn Sinfonietta, HSM Symphonic and Opera Orchestra Gothenburg, Hanatsu Miroir, Łódź Academy Symphony Orchestra, Sepia Ensemble, Omnibus Ensemble, and Collettivo_21. Samsaminia has participated in masterclasses led by prominent composers such as Georg Friedrich Haas, Oscar Bianchi, Dimitri Kourliandski, Rebecca Saunders, Karlheinz Essl, Pierluigi Billone, Alexander Schubert, Tristan Murail, John Chowning, José Sánchez-Verdú, and Klaus Lang. He was also awarded a full scholarship to the International Young Composers Academy in Ticino, Switzerland.
His works have been presented at international festivals such as the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Musica Nova Helsinki, reMusik, OutHear Festival, Gaudeamus Festival, Sound and Images New York, Ticino Musica, Crossroads, Mixtur Festival, UNM Iceland, Sound of Stockholm, ICMC Korea, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Eufonija, and Siren Festival Gothenburg. Samsaminia’s music has been performed in numerous countries, including Switzerland, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Poland, Iceland, the United States, Italy, Finland, Sweden, Spain, Denmark, Serbia, Romania, Canada, Estonia, Portugal, France, Belgium, Iran, Georgia, Armenia, Austria, Norway, and the UK.
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Curriculum Vitae
- Education:
- 2020-2026 Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Ph.D Candidate in Music Composition
- 2019 UDK Berlin University of Arts, Exchange Student MA in Music Composition, Germany
- 2018-2019 Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama, Exchange student MA in Music Composition, Sweden
- 2017-2018 Estonian Academy of Music, MA in Music Composition, Estonia
- 2016-2017 Sibelius Academy of Music, Music Composition, Finland, Exchange/BA
- 2012-2016 Tbilisi State Music Conservatoire, Bachelor, Music Composition, Georgia
- 2004-2009 Tehran Music School of Suoreh, High School Diploma in Music, Iran
- Official Jury Member at Music Composition competitions / Guest Lecturer
- Guest Lecturer at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm 2024
- Artistic Committee at the Sound and Music Computing Festival 2024, Porto, Portugal
- Guest Lecturer at the Sibelius Academy of Music, Helsinki, Finland 2023
- Guest Lecturer at Eufonija Festival 2023, Novisad Serbia
- Guest Lecturer at the Elon University of North Carolina, Composition for Piano 2023
- Jury member at Eufonija Festival 2021 Festival for accordion and chamber music, Novi-Sad, Serbia
- Jury member at Gilgamesh Composition competition among the other jury members such as Du Yun and Thomas Kotcheff
- Jury member, guest composer and lecturer at Petrichor Records Composition Competition for Young Composers 2020, among names like Chaya Czernowin, Katharina Rosenberger, Nina C. Young, etc.
- Main Jury member at Noise A Noise Electronic Record Lable call for artists 2020
- Guest Lecturer at Eufonija Festival 2021, Novi-Sad, Serbia
- Guest Lecturer at Kanch International Music Festival 2021, Yerevan Armenia
- Guest Lecturer at Tehran University of Arts, 2021
- Guest Lecturer at Tehran University Music Department / Composition Faculty 2018
- Scholarships and Awards
- 2024 Winning composer at Remus Georgescu International Composing Competition 2024, Timisoara, Romania
- 2024 The Swedish Arts Grants Committee (Invited by Linn Persson/Stockholm Saxophone Quartet)
- 2022 The German Federal Cultural Foundation Fund
- 2020 Finalist of Jonathan Harvey Scholarship, Huddersfield University, UK
- 2019 Full scholarship, International Young Composers Academy, Ticino Musica 2019, Switzerland, Ticino Musica Nova, Lugano, Switzerland
- 2019 Erasmus Scholarship, University of Arts in Berlin UDK, Germany
- 2018–2019 Erasmus Scholarship, Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama, Sweden
- 2018 DoRa+ Scholarship for participation at Mixtur 2018 Music Festival, Barcelona
- 2017–2018 DoRa+ Scholarship European Regional Investment, Estonian Academy of Music and Theater
- 2016 Erasmus+ Award and Scholarship, Sibelius Academy of Music, Finland
- Commissioned and selected works :
- Commissioned composer at Remus Georgescu International Composing Competition 2024, Timisoara, Romania
- Commissioned composer at KUMAUS FESTIVAALI 2024, Finland
- Commissioned composer by Interstring Project Ensemble 2024
- Commissioned composer by DME Ensemble/Project 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
- Commissioned composer at Musica Nova Helsinki 2023, Zagros Ensemble 2023
- Selected composer at FINMN New Music Festival, Mexico City, Mexico 2023
- Selected composer at Muslab Electronic Music Festival 2023, Ecuador
- Kulturmesse Trondheim 2023, Norway
- Commissioned composer at Eufonija Festival 2023, Novi-Sad, Serbia
- Commissioned composer at Access Contemporary Music of Chicago 2022
- Commissioned composer by Collegium Novum Zurich Ensemble 2022
- Commissioned composer at Eufonija Festival 2022, Accordion Concerto for Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra, Serbia 2022
- Commissioned composer by K!ART Ensemble 2021
- Selected Composer by Loadbang Ensemble 2021-2022, NYC, USA
- Selected Composer at Nordic Percussion Festival 2021, Aarhus, Denmark
- Commissioned composer by Ensemble Musikfabrik, Germany 2020-2021
- Commissioned composer by Trio Estatico (Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Recherche) 2021, Frankfurt
- Commissioned composer by Musica Al Dente Festival 2021, Moscow, Russia
- Selected/commissioned composer by Ensemble Collettivo_21, Crossroads 2020, Mozarteum Universurty, Salzburg, Austria 2020
- Commissioned composer by Darragh Morgan, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2020, Huddersfield, UK
- Selected composer by Klangforum Wien Ensemble at outHear Music Festival, Greece 2019
- Commissioned/Selected composer by Ensmeble Modern at Ticino Musica, Switzerland 2019
- Commissioned composer by K!ART Ensemble, Denmark 2019
- Selected composer by Risuonanze 2019, Udine, Italy
- Selected composer by International Festival for modern art in Odessa, Ukraine, ISCM 2019
- Selected composer by Gdansk Electro-Acoustic Festival 2019
- Commissioned composer by Beethoven Academy in Bonn 2018
- Commissioned composer by Domen Koren (Slovenian Saxophone Player) In cooperation with Ljubljana Academy of Music, Ljubljana 2018
- Selected composer by Fie Schouten’s Trio Project at Gaudeamus Festival 2018
- Commissioned composer by Trio Saeitenwind (Switzerland) for Tehran International Contemporary Music Festival 2018
- Selected composer at Estonian Music Days 2018 , Tallinn Contemporary Sinfonietta
- Selected/Commissioned composer at MIXTUR 2018 Contemporary Music Festival , Barcelona , Spain
- Composer in residence at Eufonija fest 2018 Contemporary Accordeon Festival , Novi sad, Serbia
- Selected composer/composer in residence by UNM Nordisk Music Festival , Iceland 2017
- Selected composer by MIXTUR 2017 Contemporary Music Festival , Barcelona,Spain
- Selected composer by Garage Ensemble’s call for proposal 2017-2018 , Germany/Finland
- Selected composer at ART & SCIENCE DAY 2016 , Bourges , France
- Selected composer at AEPEX CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE ,Michigan, USA
- Selected composer at Garda International Music Masters , Garda, Italy
- Selected composer at UMKC Composition workshop final concert, Kansas Missouri Music Conservatory ,USA
- Festivals attendance/Performed :
- DME Project 2024, Lisbon, Portugal
- FINMN Mexico New Music Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
- Nowe Fale Music Festival, Gdansk, Poland 2024
- CROMA 24, Lisbon, portugal
- Kumaus Festival 2024, Finland
- Musica Nova 2023 Helsinki, Finland
- FINMN Mexico New Music Festival, Mexico City, Mexico
- Muslab 2023 Electronic Music Festival, Ecuador 2023
- Kulturmesse Trondheim,
- Eufonija Festival 2023, Serbia
- MUSICA DEL XXI SECOLO 2022
- Access Contemporary Music, Chicago, USA 2022
- Eufonija Festival 2022
- Nordic Percussion Festival 2021, Aarhus, Denmark
- Baroque on Beaver 2021, Michigan, USA
- Pozanan 5th International Viola Forum, Poznan, Poland
- Gioventu Musicale d’italia 2021, Modena, Italy
- Unerhörte Musik Festival 2021, Berlin, Germany
- Crossroads 2020, Salzburg Austria
- Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2020
- reMusik 2020
- Impuls Nue Musik 2019, Germany/Switzerland
- OutHear New Music Week 2019, Larissa, Greece
- Tempo Reale Festival 2019, Florence, Italy
- Ticino Musica International Young Composers Academy 2019
- Risuonanze 2019
- Odessa Festival of Modern Art 2 Days and 2 Nights of New Music 2019
- Ircam Manifeste 2019 (Auditor)
- Siren Festival 2019, Gothenburg, Sweden
- Gaudeamus 2018, Utrecht, Netherlands
- Estonian Music Days 2018, Tallinn, Estonia
- Mixtur 2018 Barcelona, Spain
- Sound of Stockholm 2017
- UNM Nordisk Music Festival 2017, Reykjavik, Iceland
- Poznań Contemporary Music Festival 2017
- Eufonija Festival 2017 and 2018 Novi Sad, Serbia
- Lerici Music Festival “Suoni Dal Golfo” 2017 Italy
- MIXTURE 2017 Contemporary Music Festival, Barcelona, Spain
- MUTEFEST 2016 Electronic Music Festival , Finland
- Tehran International Contemporary Music Festival 2016 and 2017, Iran
- Batumi International Contemporary Music Festival 2014, Georgia
- Yerevan “Perform me” contemporary Music Festival 2014, Armenia
- Workshops and Masterclasses participation :
- 2021 Zagreb Music Biennale with Alexander Schubert and Raphael Cendo
- 2020 Composition Masterclasses with Oscar Bianchi, Yuri Kasparov, St.petersburg Russia, reMusik Festival
- 2019 Composition Masterclasses with Dimitri Kourldianski, Katharina Rosenberger, Lugano
- 2019 Composition Master Class, Oscar Bianchi, Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin - Ticino Musica Festival Lugano 2019
- 2019 Composition Seminar held by Beat Furrer, University of Arts in Berlin
- 2018 Composition Master Class, Tristan Murail , Rebeca Saunders , Alexander Schubert Barcelona , Spain
- 2017 Composition Master Class , Klaus Lang , Michael Finnissy , Gabriel Prokofiev, Dror Feiler
- 2017 Composition Master Class , Pierluigi Billone , Fabian Panisello, Barcelona,Spain
- 2017 Composition Masterclass , Georg Friedrich Haas, Tallinn Estonia
- 2016 Composition Master Class , Karlheinz Essl , Jose Maria Sanchez Verdu, Daniele Bravi, Sibelius Academy of Music Finland
- 2016 Timbral and Spectral music composition , Mauro Montalbetti , Italy
- 2015 Spectral music composition , Manolis Vlitakis from UDK University, Georgia
- 2014 Avant-Gard and Electronic Composition, Francois Bernard Mache, Georgia
- 2014 Electronic and Contemporary Music Notation, George Hajdu, Georgia
- Concerts and Performed Compositions (Excerpts) :
(Slovenia, Netherlands, UK, Poland, Germany, Sweden, France, Finland, Spain, Iceland, Serbia, Italy, USA, Bulgaria, Georgia, Armenia, Iran , Uzbekistan and etc.)
- 2024 Octahedral Revelation for Digital Accordion and 8 Channels, Montreal University, Canada
- 2023 Nodes and Arcs for Quarter-tone Accordion and Zagros Ensemble, Musica Nova Festival 2023 Helsinki, Finland
- 2022 Neutralization operation inside the Piano, Elon University of North Carolina, USA
- 2022 The Queen Bee, Eufonija Festival, Accordion Concerto for Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra
- 2022 Shifā, Collegium Novum Zurich Ensemble 2022, Switzerland
- 2022 Micromoments VI, loadbang ensemble, New York, USA
- 2021 Micromoments VII, Trio Estatico (Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Recherche), Paris, France
- 2021 Micromoments V, Collettivo_21 Ensemble, Modena Music Festival, Italy
- 2021 Micro-Moments IV, Ensemble Musikfabrik, 2020-2021 project, Germany
- 2020 Micro-Moments III for Collettivo_21 Ensemble, Crossroads 2020, Salzburg
- 2020 Beyond The ASMR, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival 2020, UK
- 2019 “Gavesht II” for Klangfrorum Wien Ensemble, Commissioned by the OutHear Fest 2019, Greece
- 2019 “Inside The Twisted Mind of The Mr. Sophistication”, Commissioned by K!ART Ensemble, Denmark
- 2019 “The Mechanism of Growth”, Ensemble Modern, Ticino Musica Festival 2019
- 2019 “ElectroSonics” Trio Saeitenwind, Basel and Biel, Switzerland, Impuls Nue Musik 2019
- 2019 “ Mantra” for 5 speakers, Temporeale Festival. Florence, Italy
- 2019 “In Eternity” Live at Latvian Radio Classic, Riga, Latvia
- 2019 “ Auschwitz : Block 11” ,Concerto for Accordion and Orchestra commissioned by Młodzi nie.poważni Orchestra, Lodz, Poland
- 2018 “ Dido and Aeneas Opera Project”, Gothenburg HSM Opera Orchestra, Conducted by Henryk Schaeffer, Sweden
- 2018 “Human Dignity” for 2 Pianos and Narrator, Performed by Kai Schumacher, Commissioned by Beethoven Academy in Bonn, Germany.
- 2018 “Old Age, Adolescence, and Infancy” for Gaudeamus 2018 Festival in Netherlands, Utrecht
- 2018 “A Piece of Monologue”, For Drum-Set Solo, for Ensemble Garage, Eastman School of Music Audio Research Studio NewYork , Köln, and Helsinki.
- 2018 “Balkaneh” Commissioned by Eufonija Fest 2018, Novi Sad, Serbia
- 2018 “Rise from the Ashes” Tallinn Sinfonietta , April 2018 , Tallinn Estonia , Estonian Music Days 2018
- 2018 Gravity for Piano and Electronics ,Mixtur Barcelona Festival 2018 , Ricardo Descalzo , Spain Barcelona
- 2018 “Sabā The Wind” for Alto Saxophone and Chamber Orchestra , Slovenian Philharmonic Hall , Ljubljana
- 2017 “4our” for Saxophone Quartet performed by STOCKHOLM SAXOPHONE QUARTET, Norkoping Sweden
- 2017 “Time , Space and Illusion” for Saxophone and Percussions, Sound of Stockholm
- 2017 “New Miniature” for Soprano Sax and Marimba , Barcelona Mixtur Festival,Spain
- 2017 “ Totally Enigmatic” for Chamber Ensemble, Sepia Ensemble Poland , Tehran
- 2017 “ DreamScapeS” for Baritone Saxophone and Piano , Performed by Linn Persson and Christopher Hatchbacka, Sweden
- 2017 “ SoundScapeS for Solo Accordion , Novi Sad Eufonija Festival 2017 , Serbia
- 2016 “Constructive Imaginary#1” KORVAT AUKI concert series #2 , Helsinki Finland, Lòdź Poland
- 2016 “4our” for Saxophone Quartet performed by STOCKHOLM SAXOPHONE QUARTET , Iran , Tehran
- 2016 “In a trice” performed by Andrea Dinda , Garda International Master Festival , Italy
- 2016 “In Memoriam” for solo Viola , Kansas Missouri conservatory , USA
- 2016 First Premiere of “Metro Project” work in ART & SCIENCE DAYS 2016 Bourges France and Second premiere by AEPEX CONTEMPORARY PERFORMANCE in Michigan USA
- 2015 “ Disabling a bomb inside the Piano” for Piano Solo and 4 performers , Tbilisi Contemporary Ensemble
- 2015 “From east to the west” for String Quartet , Performed by Omnibus Ensemble , Uzbekistan
- 2015 “Samā” for Persian folk instrument and Laptop Electronics , Performed by Arshia Samsaminia(Setar) Nikoloz Davitashvili (Laptop) , Tbilisi International Musicologists Festival
- 2015 “Parce Domine” for Septet Ensemble , Performed by Tbilisi Contemporary Music Ensemble
- 2014 “Gravity” for Electric Guitar and Laptop Electronics , Batumi Contemporary Music Festival , Georgia
- 2013 “In outside” for solo Piano , Performed by Anahit Hakopian, Perform Me Festival , Khachaturian Museum Recital Hall , Yerevan, Armenia
- CD Releases :
- Composer Alive: Access Contemporary Music Chicago, 2022
- Four Decades of Accordion in Łódź, Concerto for accordion and orchestra 2019, ARS-SONORA RECORDS 2020
- New Music in Iran #3, Mahoor Records, 2019 Tehran
- Dialogues (Anthology of Iranian Contemporary Composers, Mahoor Records, 2019 Tehran
- Tehran Contemporary Music Festival VOL.II, 2016 Tehran
- Final Research Papers
- Using Persian Ancient/Medieval Microtonal Music as Material for Composing New Music (Ongoing PhD Thesis), The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki, Greece 2020—present
- Composing Music Based on Materials from Ethnic Therapeutic Healing Music. University of Gothenburg/Estonian Academy of Music 2019
- Youtube/Soundcloud/Website: