Amin Sharifi

Sharifi’s works have been performed in the United States, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Lithuania, Russia, Canada, Poland, Czech Republic and his home Iran. His music was called “creative, individualistic, artistic” by the critique of Juilliard School of Music and “product of an unbridled imagination” by the Memphis Daily News. Sharifi’s pieces have been performed by such new-music ensembles/orchestras as JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Ostravska Banda (Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra), Hypercube, A&C String Quartet, Luna Nova, DissonArt, Duo Sequenza, Pierrot-Tehran, Breakout, the Indiana University Symphonic Band, and the Indiana Philharmonic. His music has been heard at ReMusik (2019), Ostrava Days (2019), Synthetis (2019), eviMus (2017), Tehran Contemporary Music Festival (2016, 2018, 2019), Druskomanija Festival (2018), WSU Contemporary Art Music Festival (2019), and RISUONANZE (2017, 2019). Soloists who have performed his music include Christopher Otto, Austin Wulliman, Verena Rojc, Oliver Dizdarevic, Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska, Wojtek Psiuk, and Futaba Niekawa.

Iranian contemporary composer, Amin Sharifi (b. 1993), studied Composition at the Art University of Tehran and Indiana University Jacobs School of Music under the direction of Sven-David Sandström, Nader Mashayekhi, David Dzubay, and Don Freund. He also has had lessons with renowned composers such as Toshio Hosokawa, Chaya Czernowin, Krzysztof Penderecki, Georg Friedrich Haas, Raphaël Cendo, Oscar Bianchi, Marc Sabat, Katharina Rosenberger, Bernhard Lang, Zygmunt Krauze, Christian Wolff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Peter Ablinger, Klaus Lang, Dai Fujikura, Frederic Rzewski, Petr Kotik, Isabel Mundry, Alvin Curran, Tansy Davies, Augusta Read Thomas, George Nussbaumer, Rolf Wallin, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, Mehdi Hosseini, Ken Ueno, John Gibson, Nina C. Young, and Sean Shepherd.

In summer 2017, his triple concerto TrombionOphone or Riders in the Field of Hope for soprano saxophone, trombone and accordion was the first-prize winner of the XXIII Edition of International Composition Competition Concorso 2 Agosto and was performed by the Tuscanini Philharmonic Orchestra in Piazza Maggiore in Bologna, Italy.

He also has worked as assistant conductor to Nader Mashayekhi with the Tehran Cultural Philharmonic Orchestra and has conducted the Pierrot-Tehran New Music Ensemble, both in The First Tehran Contemporary Music Festival and several recording seasons. He has also received the prestigious Artistic Excellence Award of Indiana University Jacobs School of Music as Assistant Director of the IU New Music Ensemble.

Amin Sharifi currently holds a Ph.D fellowship in Composition at Duke University in the United States.

Sharifi has two released albums:

۱) Shifting Colors on the Slant which is a collection of his solo piano music based on Persian music improvisation performed by Japanese-American pianist Futaba Niekawa.

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۲) A portrait of the Composer as a Young Man, an autobiographical collection of chamber music by Amin Sharifi, all composed and performed during his undergraduate years in Iran.

To find out more about the works, please visit pages Work or Album.

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Select Awards and Commissions:

• Mivos/Kanter Composition Competition Award Finalist, Mise-en-Scene II, Sep. 2019
• Featured composer, Plectrum for Tar and Fixed Media, Washington State University, Feb. 2019
• Reza Korourian Electro-Acoustic Award, Plectrum for Tar and Fixed Media, Sep. 2018
• Commissioned composer, Druskomanija festival, Lithuania, Jun. 2018,
• Commissioned composer, RISUONANZE, Oct. 2018
• 1st prize winner, XXIII Edition Concorso 2 Agosto, TrombionOphone or Riders in the Field of Hope, triple concerto for Saxophone, Accordion and Trombone, Aug. 2017
• Commissioned composer, eviMus Electro-Acoustic and Visual Media Festival, Plectrum, Nov. 2017
• Featured composer, TUTTI Festival 2017, Dension University, Piano Exhibition, Feb. 2017
• Composer in-residence, Pierrot Tehran New Music Ensemble, Mise-en-scène, Shooshtarti, 2014-2017
• Commissioned composer, Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Permutation, Apr. 2017
• Selected composer, Duets Exhibition, DuoSequenza flute & guitar album and concert, Mar. 2017
• Winner of IU Kids Compose 2016-2017, Misty night, Oct. 2016
• Selected composer, S.E.M. Ensemble Call for Scores, Quintet No.2 “Written Improviation”, Aug. 2015
• Commissioned composer, Breakout Ensemble, Sketches for A Cappella, May 2014
• Commissioned composer, ACIMC Iranian Composers Association, A Hovering Idea, Aug. 2014
• Selected Composer, Belvedere New Music Festival, Quintet No. 1 “Lamentoso”, Jun. 2013

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Select Performances:

• Maximum insufficiently Identical Outlines, Mivos Quartet, Durham, Baldwin Auditorium, Sep. 2019
• Aposynthesy, Ostravska Banda conducted by Lilianna Krych, Ostrava Days, Janacek Conservatory in Ostrava, Czech Republic, Aug. 2019
• Mise-en-Synthetis, Aleksandra Demowska-Madejska and Wojtek Psiuk, Synthetis 2019, Poland, July 2019
• Minimum Different Enough Details II, Verena Rojc and Oliver Dizdarevic, Risuonanze festival, Jun. 2019
• Mise-en-scène II, A&C String Quartet, reMusik.org festival, Saint Petersburg, Russia, May 2019
• Minimum Different Enough Details for violin duo, Christopher Otto and Austin Wulliman, Apr. 2019
• Veni, Vidi, Amavi, Indiana Symphonic Band conducted by Eric Smedley, Apr. 2019
• Plectrum for Tar and Fixed Media, Washington State University, Feb. 2019
• Monologue for the loneliness of the Composer II, Kelariz Keshavarz, Eight Concerts in Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2019, Alef foundation Concert Series in Shiraz, Rasht, and in Tehran’s Theater House, Tehran University, Gozar Music Institute. Feb. – Jul. 2019
• Plectrum for Tar and Fixed Media, Dream House Ensemble, Stable Sounds Concert, Jan, 2019
• Mise-en-scène, JACK Quartet, Durham, NC, Baldwin Auditorium, Nov. 2018
• String Quartet for Contemporary Choreography, JACK Quartet, Durham, Baldwin Auditorium, Nov. 2018
• Koocheh Baghi, Hypercube Ensmeble, Duke New Music Series, Durham, NC, Sep. 2018
• Monologue for the loneliness of the composer II, Vytautas Oškinis, Druskomanija Festival 2018, Vilinus, Litunania, May 2018
• Chamber Music Collection: Gloria Patri, Select piano pieces, Minimum Different Enough Details, Auer Hall, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, April 2018
• Strumtest, eviMus Electro-Acoustic and Visual Media Festival, Saarbrücken, Nov. 2017
• TrombionOphone or Riders in the Field of Hope, triple concerto for trombone, soprano saxophone and accordion, Toscanini Philharmonic conducted by Alessandro Cadario, Bologna, Italy, Aug. 2017
• Duets: Exhibition for Flute & Guitar by Duo Sequesnza, Wofford College, Nov. 2017
• Shifting Colors on the Slant, Impressions for solo piano, Ford Hall, Bloomington, Indiana, Oct. 2017
• Gloria Patri for Flute and two pianos, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, Oct. 2017
• Duets: Exhibition for Flute & Guitar, Duo Sequesnza, Indiana Opera House, May 2017
• Exhibition: A Portrait, Minju Choi, Tutti Festival 2017, Denison University, Feb. 2017
• Concert of selected chamber music, First Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Apr. 2016
• Tabriz Experimental Ensemble, Pianist, First Tehran Contemporary Music Festival, Apr. 2016
• Monologue for the Loneliness of the Composer II for Flute solo, Indiana University, Oct. 2016
• Composition Recital (selected piano music), Tehran University of Art, Feb. 2016
• Recording of selected chamber music by Tehran New Music Ensemble, May, 2015
• Sketches for Acapella, Breakout Ensemble, Munich, Germany, Apr. 2015
• Quintet No.2 “Written Improvisation”, DissonArt Ensemble, Thessaloniki, Dec. 2014
• A Hovering Idea for solo Piano, Third Radical Tehran Modern Music Festival, Aug. 2014
• A hovering Idea for Piano solo in Auditorium du Collège Franco-Britannique Cité Universitaire Internationale de Paris, Sep. 2014
• Why Should be Like this? for flute, clarinet and viola, 3rd Radical Tehran Festival, May 2014
• Eastern Crossroad for solo flute, 2nd Radical Tehran Modern Festival, Mar. 2014
• Live Performance and broadcast of Quintet No.1 “Lamentoso”, National Public Radio, Jun. 2013
• Quintet No.1 “Lamentoso”, Belvedere music Festival in Memphis, TN, Jun. 2013

Discography:

• Camouflage, 3rd Electroacoustic music composition competition Reza Korourian Awards winners, YMG Records, May 2019
• Duo Sequenza: yes that’s a thing!, Parma Recordings, Apr. 2019
• Shifting Colors on the Slant, eleven impressions for Solo Piano, Petrichor Records, Nov. 2018
• A Portrait of the Composer as a Young Man, select chamber music, Petrichor Records, Mar. 2017

Teachers and lessons:

• Composition: Chaya Czernowin, Toshio Hosokawa, Krzysztof Penderecki, Georg Friedrich Haas, Raphaël Cendo, Oscar Bianchi, Marc Sabat, Katharina Rosenberger, Bernhard Lang, Zygmunt Krauze, Christian Wolff, Vladimir Tarnopolsky, Peter Ablinger, Klaus Lang, Sven-David Sandstrom, Dai Fujikura, Frederic Rzewski, Petr Kotik, Isabel Mundry, Alvin Curran, Tansy Davies, Augusta Read Thomas, George Nussbaumer, Rolf Wallin, Alex Mincek, Kate Soper, Mehdi Hosseini, Ken Ueno, John Gibson, Nina C. Young, and Sean Shepherd
• Electronic Music: John Gibson, Alicyn Warren, Jeffery Hass
• Cross-Cultural Composition, Dr. Hafez Modirzadeh
• Conceptual Performance, George Nussbaumer
• New Music Conducting, Dr. David Dzubay

Festivals Participated:

• ReMusik Festival 2019 (St. Petersburg, Russia)
• Ostrava Days 2019 (Ostrava, Czech Republic)
• Synthetis 2019 (Warsaw, Poland)
• Festival of Contemporary Art Music 2019 (Washington State University)
• Risuonanze Festival 2017, 2019 (Udine, Italy)
• Druskomanija Festival 2018 (Druskomanija, Lithuania)
• Tehran Contemporary Music Festival 2016, 2018, 2019 (Tehran, Iran)
• TUTTI Festival 2017 (Denison University) eviMus Electro-Acoustic and Visual Media Festival
• eviMus Electro-Acoustic and Visual Media Festival 2017 (Denison University, Ohio)
• Radical Tehran 2013, 2014 (Tehran, Iran)

Workshops Taught:

• Music in the contemporary era, Saari Cultural Center, Saari, Iran, Feb. 2019
• 20th and 21st Century Music Phenomenology, Shiraz University of Art, Shiraz, Iran, Feb. 2019
• 20th and 21st Century Music Phenomenology, Koosha Music Center, Tehran, Iran, Jan. 2019

New Music Conducting:

• Assistant to Nader Mashayekhi (Tehran Cultural Philharmonic Orchestra), 2014 – 2015
• Founder and Conductor, Pierrot-Tehran New Music Ensemble, Feb. – Apr. 2016
• Aftabeh Lagan Haft Dast, Tehran’s Boom Gallery, Jun. 2015

Film Music:

• Short film The Night, directed by MohammadReza Nourian, Nahal Short Film Festival, 2014
• Short film Pagard, directed by Mehdi Sadeghi, Tehran Short Film Festival, 2017
• www.imdb.com/name/nm8190100

Education:

• Ph. D in Music Composition, Duke University, expected 2022
• Master of Music Composition, Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, 2018
• Bachelor of Music Composition, Tehran University of Art, Jan. 2016

Educational Honors:

• Ranked #1 Music Composition Student, Tehran University of Art, 2016
• Ranked #3 in nation-wide university entrance exam (40223 participants), 2011, Iran
• Member of Iran’s National Elites Foundation, 2011- 2015
• Best undergraduate composition thesis, Tehran University of Art, 2016, Iran