Saman Shahi

Saman Shahi is an award-winning and published composer, pianist, conductor and educator based in Toronto. He’s active in classical music, new music, Iranian traditional music, rock and electronic music, and because of his constant activities in Canada and abroad, he has become a sought after performer and composer. 

Saman’s compositions have been performed in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. Saman’s orchestral music has been performed by Windsor Symphony Orchestra, Windsor Youth Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra Toronto, and Scarborough Philharmonic Orchestra to name a few. His repertory as a composer includes 4 orchestral works, three operas (two with ICOT), two ballets works (with ICOT), and many works for choral, vocal and chamber forces.

As a pianist and conductor, Saman has been an avid performer and advocate of new music in Canada. Most notably, Saman was the conductor at the opening of Tirgan Nowruz Festival in 2018, where he gave the north American premiere of Grammy Award nominated Hossein Alizadeh’s “Neynava” at George Weston Hall. He also finished a solo Piano tour around Ontario in 2019 titled “In Search of Polarity” featuring piano music of Iranian composers in Diaspora. 

In 2020 Saman’s debut composition album “Breathing in the Shadows” was recorded by Leaf Music with release scheduled later in the year. This album contains three of his song cycles. His song cycle “Orbit”, in this album, won the second prize in Canadian Amateur Musician’s Associations’ inaugural composition Competition in 2019.

Visit his website here.