Biography

Composer, vocalist, and actor, Samuel L. Siskind is a high school sophomore and a 2022/23 Los Angeles Philharmonic Composing Fellow.

Samuel is an often-featured soloist for the Grammy® Award-Winning National Children's Chorus (NCC), as seen on digital concerts as well as in live performances at venues including David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center.

In 2017, Samuel made his Los Angeles Opera debut as Sem in Britten's Noye's Fludde under the musical direction of Maestro James Conlon. On screen, his performance as character, Cody and Soloist for Panis Angelicus is prominent in the independent film The Uncanny (2022). Handpicked by Madonna, he can be seen featured in her music video for God Control directed by Jonas Åkerlund.

Accolades include Best Performance in a Musical as Brett in Children's Letters to God at Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center NY and a Best Actor nomination at the 2018 Official Latino Film Festival for his work in Little Angel directed by Wonien Garcia. Samuel can also be heard with the NCC on the LA Phil's Grammy® winning recording of Mahler: Symphony No. 8, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel.

As a composer, Samuel's work has premiered at Carnegie Hall and venues from historic Royce Hall in Los Angeles to concert halls across Asia. Additionally, in the 2022/23 season, members of the LA Phil will record his works such as, Natural Sounds for solo violin and marimba.

Other pieces in Samuel's catalog have been recorded by producer Matthew Wilder at the iconic Capitol Records in Los Angeles. Samuel's choral piece,The Forest, was selected by the CEO of the NCC to tour Asia in a series of concerts that included the Mapo Arts Center accompanied by the Arborvitae Chamber Orchestra in Seoul, Kyoto Concert Hall and Santori Hall in Tokyo, Japan. The tour culminated in an internationally televised performance at the DMZ in collaboration with musicians from North and South Korea.

Samuel's orchestral waltz, Rain, written when he was 12, was scored for ballet by renowned choreographer Alisher Kasanov and performed under the stars at the Yellowstone International Arts Festival 2020 by Nadia Khan of the Rome Opera Theater.

Samuel has steadily built a body of work which includes Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in 3 movements (2021) and the choral cycle, Release (2022) inspired by recent events from beginning high school during the pandemic, as well as themes from the Book of Psalms and Renaissance composers for the commission by The Golden Bridge, Artistic Director, Suzy Digby, which marks the world premiere of his first commissioned piece, Out from the Deep.

Samuel studies voice and composition with his mentor UCLA Professor Ian Krouse and is working toward his private pilot's license.
- IMDb mini biography by: Moira Siskind

Once described as the "Mozart of GenZ" by the official conductor of The Rolling Stones, Suzi Digby OBE, when she commissioned him at a young age, composer Samuel Siskind, is "emerging as one of the most promising young composers of his generation" (UCLA Composition Department Chair Dr. Ian Krouse).

The music of American composer Samuel Siskind (b. 2006) has been premiered, performed, and recorded by ensembles including the Los Angeles Philharmonic, USC Thornton Symphony, Choral Arts Initiative, The Golden Bridge, Fourth Wall Ensemble NYC, and the GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children's Chorus.

His works have been heard at venues such as Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall, Royce Hall at UCLA, MAPO Arts Center Seoul, Santori Hall Tokyo and at the Yellowstone International Arts Festival where his piece "Rain" was choreographed for Nadia Khan of Teatro Dell'Opera Di Roma. (Link) Internationally, his music has toured throughout Asia, with a notable highlight being an internationally televised performance from the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), where his piece "The Forest" opened the Lindenbaum Peace Festival in collaboration with musicians from both North and South Korea. (Link)

At age 15, Samuel became the youngest composer to be commissioned by The Golden Bridge, under the direction of Artistic Director Suzi Digby OBE and patron Morten Lauridsen. For this he reimagined the a cappella Renaissance classic Out from the Deep by Thomas Tallis, a work that went on to win him the 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. His choral cycle Release was named a finalist for the same award in 2023.

Samuel's debut album Awake showcases a collection of vocal works performed by New York's acclaimed Fourth Wall Ensemble, conducted by Sir Georg Solti Award winner Christopher Allen. The recording features GRAMMY® nominated baritone Johnathan McCullough and concludes with a solo piano piece performed by Siskind himself. Recorded at the DiMenna Center for Classical Music in New York, the album followed the premiere of Soaring Dreams, an eight-part choral work debuted at Carnegie Hall's Stern Auditorium by the GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children's Chorus.

Awake has drawn widespread critical acclaim. Mark Gabrish Conlan of Fanfare Magazine praised Siskind's "remarkable choral, vocal and piano music," awarding the album 5 out of 5 stars. Ken Meltzer of the Atlanta Symphony noted that "[His] melodies are fresh, beautiful and memorable. Offering a bright, rich, and blended sonority in his choral settings [with] a marvelous shimmering quality that I find irresistible and enchanting." UK critic Colin Clarke who regularly writes for Seen& Heard, Fanfare Magazine and Gramophone described the album as "rigorous," commending Siskind's "finely calibrated" dissonance and "real discipline at the compositional level."

Samuel Siskind has twice been named an LA Phil Composing Fellow where he trained under acclaimed composers Andrew Norman and the late Sarah Gibson. He was 1 of 30 composers selected worldwide by Dean and Director of Juilliard's Music Division, David Serkin-Ludwig to participate in the inaugural Juilliard Summer Composition Program. He will begin his undergraduate studies at the USC Thornton School of Music with a focus on film composition.

Also an accomplished vocalist, Siskind appeared on the National Children's Chorus album Illumine as the baritone soloist for the track, Ose Shalom by John Leavitt, recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra. The album recently surpassed 1 million streams. Samuel has been featured as a soloist with the NCC in concerts at Lincoln Center in New York, Bel Air Presbyterian Church in Los Angeles, and in the UK on a collaboration concert with VOCES8. He has toured internationally with the ensemble, performing at world-renowned venues including St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican, St. Mark's Basilica in Venice, the Berlin Wall, the Musikverein in Vienna, and on the GRAMMY® Award-winning album of the LA Philharmonic's recording of Mahler's Symphony No. 8, conducted by Gustavo Dudamel recorded at Walt Disney Hall.

He made his operatic debut in 2017 as Sem in Britten's Noye's Fludde at LA Opera under the baton of Maestro James Conlon. He went on to perform the title role in Michael Jacobson's "The Tinker of Tivoli," with the National Youth Opera Academy and appeared as the bass soloist of Handel's Messiah in NCC's 20th Anniversary Concert. Additional accolades include Classical Voice Grand Prize Honorable Mention (2025) and Semifinalist (2024) at the LA Music Center's Spotlight Awards.

His performance of Panis Angelicus was prominently featured in the award-winning independent film The Uncanny (2022). Siskind was then chosen by Madonna, to be visually featured in her music video for God Control directed by Jonas Åkerlund.
- IMDb mini biography by: Moira Siskind