The Saad Haddad Show – Details, episodes & analysis

Ben Morris is a composer and jazz pianist known for blending genres and telling unconventional stories through music. Influenced by his Norwegian heritage, he explored folk music's impact on Norwegian jazz during a Fulbright Grant in Oslo. His debut album, Pocket Guides, received critical acclaim and multiple awards. Beyond jazz, Ben is a versatile composer for film, theatre, and opera, with works performed by top ensembles. He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Composition at Stephen F. Austin State University and holds advanced degrees from the University of Colorado Boulder, Rice University, and the University of Miami. This show includes excerpts of the following compositions: Ymir’s Bones, for jazz band. Longleaf, for chamber ensemble. The Fall of Man and Other Tales, an opera. ➡️ Your next step is to join my free course community for composers by signing up here (for FREE) ➡️ https://www.skool.com/composersbrainlite

Patrick O’Malley is an award-winning composer of symphonic, chamber, and film music. Whether writing for an orchestra or electronic textures, his music embraces abstract worlds and emotions with the goal of igniting listeners’ imaginations. His classical works have been performed across the United States and Europe, and his film music has been heard in several American film festivals. O’Malley has been recognized or performed by organizations including the Albany, Minnesota, Ft. Wayne, and Milwaukee Symphonies, the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s National Composer Intensive, The ASCAP Morton Gould Award, and The Aaron Copland House Residency. He was named Composer of the Year by the Sioux City Symphony in 2018, and made his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Youth Symphony in 2021. O’Malley also serves as the arranger and a conductor for the video game concert series Journey LIVE with Grammy-nominated composer Austin Wintory. O’Malley completed his masters and doctoral degrees in music at the University of Southern California where he studied with Andrew Norman and Sean Friar. He divides his time between living in Los Angeles California, and Lake Charlevoix, Michigan. 🌐 https://www.musicbypatrickomalley.com/ 💿 All of the works featured on this podcast can be heard on the composer's debut orchestral album, "The Horizons": https://www.orchidclassics.com/releases/orc100303-patrick-omalley-the-horizons/ 📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 📰 NEWSLETTER: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras 🕒 Timestamps 00:38 "Obliviana," for orchestra 15:48 "Rest and Restless," for orchestra 33:40 "Concerto for viola and orchestra, 'The Horizons'"

A sound artist and composer from Philadelphia, Pa, Dani Dobkin received a BA in Experimental Music and the Electronic Arts from Bard College where she studied under Bob Bielecki, Marina Rosenfeld and Richard Teitelbaum. Always in search of new ways to engage and interact with sound, she works with installation, modular synthesis, handmade circuits, live electronic improvisation, and interdisciplinary projects with dancers, musicians, poets, and visual artists.  Dobkin recently received her MFA in Sound Arts from Columbia University and is pursuing her Doctorate in music composition at Columbia.  

🌐 https://danidobkin.com/

💿 “Weavings,” for the Serge modular: https://issueprojectroom.org/video/serge-modular-50th-anniversary-dani-dobkin

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

00:35 “Weavings,” for the Serge modular 

15:25 “Magnolias in Boom,” for chamber ensemble, excerpt 1

31:08 “Magnolias in Boom,” for chamber ensemble, excerpt 2

French-Lebanese-American violist Noémie Chemali received her Bachelor’s degree from McGill  University’s Schulich School of Music, her Artist Diploma from the Robert McDuffie Center for Strings at Mercer University, and her Master’s Degree from The Juilliard School. Her principal teachers include Becca Albers, Hsin-Yun Huang, and Carol Rodland.

During her time at Juilliard, she made her Carnegie Weill Hall solo debut in the UN Chamber Music Society’s Arabic Language Day concert and collaborated with dancers of the New York City Ballet.  During her time at the McDuffie Center for Strings, she performed alongside faculty members of the Cavani and Ehnes String Quartets. In 2019, she also performed in “A Night of Georgia Music,” a tour the American South with violinist Robert McDuffie,  guitarist Mike Mills of the band R.E.M., and pianist Chuck Leavell of the Allman Brothers Band/Rolling Stones.  Some performance highlights from McGill include playing a concert with clarinetist David Krakauer in a program of Klezmer music, being selected to perform a chamber work by John Rea in a concert presented by the Société de musique contemporaine du Québec (SMCQ) alongside Schulich faculty and students, and participating in the 2018 Musical Chairs Chamber Music Festival, where she collaborated with students from the Mozarteum (Austria) and the Yong Siew Toh Conservatory of Music (Singapore).

🌐https://www.noemiechemali.com/

💿“The Mouraba' Dance,” by Wajdi Abou Diab: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTSapqWxOdU

💿“Tasalsul IV,” by Saad Haddad: https://youtu.be/JuUrwUrnzCQ?si=IGij9mEv04pMrkFX

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

Inside Arabic Music: https://www.amazon.com/Inside-Arabic-Music-Performance-Century/dp/0190658355

🕒 Timestamps 

00:00 Ensemble Phoenicia 

04:00 LinkedIn

06:58 Conservatory

09:35 Cadenza from “The Brown Texts,” by Layale Chaker

11:30 Concert protocol

12:45 Why play Middle Eastern-inspired music? 

19:50 “The Mouraba' Dance,” by Wajdi Abou Diab

29:68 “Tasalsul IV,” by Saad Haddad

38:20 Playing in orchestra

Matthew Ricketts (b. 1986, British Columbia) is a Canadian composer based in New York City. His music moves from extremes of presence and absence, from clamor to quietude, at once reticent and flamboyant. Matthew’s music has been called “lyrical, contrapuntal, rhythmically complex and highly nuanced” (The American Academy of Arts and Letters) and is noted for his “effervescent and at times prickly sounds,” “hypnotically churning exploration of melody” (ICareIfYouListen) as well as its “tart harmonies and perky sputterings” (The New York Times). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow.

His works have been performed internationally by JACK Quartet, Mivos Quartet, Flux Quartet, the Fromm Players, Quatuor Bozzini, the Chiara String Quartet; vocalists Tony Arnold, Sharon Harms, Lauren Worsham, Karim Sulayman and Ekmeles; Collage New Music, Nouvel Ensemble Moderne, Aspen Contemporary Ensemble, Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, Ensemble Paramirabo, Argento and Talea Ensemble; soloists Jean-Willy Kunz, Nathaniel LaNasa, Sara Laimon and Julia Den Boer; and orchestras including the Aspen Philharmonic (Robert Spano, cond.), Esprit Orchestra (Alex Pauk, cond.), the Minnesota Orchestra (Osmo Vänskä, cond.), the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (Kent Nagano, cond.), the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester Hamburg. Matthew was Composer-Collaborator-In-Residence at East Carolina University from 2016-2018.

Active as a writer as well as a composer, Matthew has published articles, reviews, poetry and libretti, and has worked closely with authors and poets Lauren J. Rogener, Paul Legault, Christian Schlegel, Mark Campbell, Royce Vavrek, Klara du Plessis and Tomson Highway on multiple collaborative projects. Other collaborative endeavors include scoring the feature-length film Glob Lessons (Tribeca Film Festival premiere, 2021) and recent projects with dancer-choreographers Brendan Drake and Jennifer Nichols.

Matthew holds degrees in music composition and theory from McGill University’s Schulich School of Music (B.Mus. 2009) and Columbia University (DMA 2017). Matthew’s principal mentors include Brian Cherney, John Rea, Chris Paul Harman, George Lewis and Fred Lerdahl. He was a Core Lecturer at Columbia University from 2017-2020.

🌐 https://matthewricketts.com/

📺 Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘 RESOURCES (these will be continued to be updated) https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒 Timestamps 

00:00 “Swivel,” from Outtake (a song cycle-in-progress with Royce Vavrek)

16:12 “Munch Blur,” from Outtake 

35:46 “Fast Backward,” from Unruly Sun 

42:21 Humor in music?

50:30 “Then as now,” from Unruly Sun

A.J. McCaffrey is a songwriter and composer of instrumental, vocal and electronic music. With a background in theater, fine arts and literature, and an upbringing that has fostered a love for a wide variety of musical styles, A.J. writes music that strives to tell a story. His works are theatrical in nature, employing harmonically rich and lyrically striking sound worlds to create moving, dramatic narratives.

Hailed by the American Academy of Arts and Letters as a composer of music “imbued with an extraordinary wit and intelligence”, A.J. received the Academy’s 2014 Goddard Lieberson Fellowship. He has been commissioned to write music for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Tanglewood Music Center and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. A.J.’s music has been performed by the American Composers Orchestra, the New Fromm Players, the Radius Ensemble, the Atlantic Chamber Ensemble and by members of the Chiara Quartet, the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Alarm Will Sound, Boston's Firebird Ensemble and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. A fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center and Aspen Music Festival and School, A.J. has been a featured composer on BMOP's The Next Next series, Tanglewood's Festival of Contemporary Music and the New Gallery Concert Series. His orchestral work Thank You for Waiting was chosen for the American Composers Orchestra Underwood New Music Readings, and he was subsequently awarded the 2013 Underwood Emerging Composers Commission.  Recent collaborations include works for violist Jonah Sirota, HOCKET piano duo, clarinetist Julia Heinen, Project Fusion saxophone quartet, and the Light Matter Trio.

A.J. holds degrees in music from Rice University, The Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and the University of Southern California. He has studied composition with Richard Lavenda, James MacMillan, Donald Crockett and Stephen Hartke. A passionate educator, A.J. was one of the founding instructors for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s groundbreaking Composer Fellowship Program.  He is currently an Associate Professor of Music at California State University Northridge. A native of the Boston area, A.J. lives in Los Angeles with his wife and their two children.

🌐http://www.ajmccaffrey.com/

💿“Our Options Have Changed,” for string quartet and video: https://youtu.be/gCvj80FciZ8?si=CyY6GJGpTswii0tT

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

📘SHOP for composition-related resources: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/saadhaddad/extras

🕒Timestamps 

00:00 Los Angeles Philharmonic Composer Fellowship Program

13:17 “Implied Airs over an Imaginary-Drone,” for solo cello

23:09 “Our Options Have Changed,” for string quartet and video

37:04 “Here Come the Waterworks,” for viola and piano

Christopher Cerrone (b. 1984) is internationally acclaimed for compositions characterized by a subtle handling of timbre and resonance, a deep literary fluency, and a flair for multimedia collaborations. Recent commissions include In a Grove, a new opera co-produced by LA Opera and Pittsburgh Opera, a violin concerto for Jennifer Koh and the Detroit Symphony, an antiphonal brass concerto for the Cincinnati Symphony, a piano concerto for Shai Wosner and the Phoenix and Albany Symphonies, a percussion concerto for Third Coast Percussion, and four works for the LA Philharmonic. His first opera, Invisible Cities, based on Italo Calvino’s novel, was a finalist for the 2014 Pulitzer Prize and he is the recipient of multiple GRAMMY nominations. He is the winner of the 2015–2016 Rome Prize and was a resident at the Laurenz Haus Foundation in Basel, Switzerland from 2022–2023. Christopher Cerrone holds degrees from Yale and the Manhattan School of Music and is published by Schott NY. He is on the composition faculty at Mannes School of Music and lives in Jersey City with his wife 🌐 https://christophercerrone.com/ 💿 Excerpt from “In a Grove”: https://youtu.be/MrUYcrlEDW0?si=xNqtSLP7BTQMxeKJ 💿 ”Hoyt-Schermerhorn”: https://youtu.be/5ow8q6OEwkY?si=Mj2twqGQYldJthaO 💿 ”Don’t Look Down”: https://youtu.be/7CeMaDGaoxs?si=UArCQ889wheIzfbS Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic 👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html 📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows: https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6 🕒 Timestamps 00:00 YouTube is underrated 06:45 Languages 08:30 Opera 10:40 Excerpt from the opera, “In a Grove” 12:40 Electronics 19:55 “Hoyt–Schermerhorn,” for piano and electronics 28:45 Aesthetics 34:20 Saad’s Saariaho story 38:27 “Don’t Look Down,” for percussion quartet 42:30 Rhythm 47:50 David Bruce 50:20 Professor Cerrone

KOH Cheng Jin is a Singaporean composer, Yang Qin and violin performer currently based in New York. Her music is eclectic and diverse in personalities. As a Chinese and Western trained musician, her works incorporate various influences from these worlds and reflect her passionate enthusiasm in unifying colorful music idioms.

Recently, her work Before Daybreak was premiered at the semifinal rounds of the 2022 Singapore International Violin Competition as the commissioned piece, and her interdisciplinary work Mountain of Echoing Halls for Yangqin and the Ohio-based Verona Quartet and dance, commissioned by Smithsonian National Museum of Asian Art, was premiered at their centennial celebrations Spring 2023. She was the youngest composer to be commissioned by the Singapore Symphony Orchestra (SSO) and has also worked with members of the Paris-based, world-renowned Ensemble InterContemporain, New York’s Metropolis Ensemble, New Thread Quartet, Imani Winds, Society of New Music, Mirror Visions Ensemble, and the Juilliard Orchestra; in Singapore, the Singapore Chinese Orchestra (SCO), Ding Yi Music Company, K 口 U Musik, Morse Percussion, T’ang Quartet, School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA) Chinese Music Ensemble, The Purple Symphony, ACS Barker Road Chinese Plucked Strings Ensemble and others. Her multiple accolades also include Mirror Visions Ensemble Prize, Society of New Music 2020 New York Federation of Music Clubs’ Brian Israel Prize, the Palmer Dixon and Gena Raps Chamber Music Prizes from the Juilliard School, as well as the Margaret Blackburn, John Eaton Memorial and Boston New Music Initiative Prizes. Her works have been performed at Singapore International Festival of Arts, Lincoln Center, National Sawdust, Yale-Norfolk New Music Workshop, Bowdoin International Music Festival, the National Flute Association Convention in San Diego, Australia Woodend Winter Arts Music Festival, Sidney Chapel (Cambridge, UK), China Conservatory Concert Hall, and the Esplanade, Victoria Concert and Singapore Conference Halls in Singapore. As a proficient Yang Qin musician who won the Singapore Chinese Music Competition (Open Category) with a solo debut with the Singapore Chinese Orchestra, Cheng Jin is indebted to her teachers Miss Qu Jian Qing and Miss Seah Poh Chun, as well as Dr. Kelly Tang, who was her first mentor in Composition at School of the Arts Singapore (SOTA). She is also grateful to her pedagogues at The Juilliard School, Robert Beaser and Melinda Wagner, both who were instrumental in her pursuit of Bachelor’s (Hons) and Master’s degrees in Music Composition generously supported by Singapore’s Loke Cheng Kim Foundation. She was also honored to be the Teaching Fellow for Juilliard’s Music Advancement Program (Composition) for two years and its Evening Division (Music Theory). She is currently a member of the Composers’ Society of Singapore (CSS) and developing her musical, research and educational interests as a MacCracken PhD Fellow and Teaching Assistant at New York University (College of Arts and Science).

🌐https://www.kohchengjin.com/

💿”Before Daybreak,” for solo violin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-P38953dGE

💿”Mountain of Echoing Halls,” for yangqin and string quartet: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7b60DRDRYvk

💿”醉荡步,” for gaunzi/sunoa, erhu, ruan, and guzheng: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aq-cMUbNEVA

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

🕒Timestamps 

00:55 Juilliard

06:25 “Before Daybreak,” for solo violin

12:18 Notation in “Before Daybreak”

19:30 NYU

27:40 “Mountain of Echoing Halls,” for yangqin and string quartet

38:30 Non-Western instruments 

49:43 ”醉荡步,” for gaunzi/sunoa, erhu, ruan, and guzheng

Phillip Golub is a composer and pianist based in New York. His musical practice centers around rethinking the rehearsal process as a site of musical sociality and collective creation.

Phillip has released music in numerous formations. He is the co-founder of the collective band Tropos (Axioms // 75ab, Biophilia Records (2020) and Shadow Music, Endectomorph Music (2023)). His solo piano debut Filters (2022), came out to critical acclaim on Greyfade. Phillip is also a member of Layale Chaker’s Sarafand Ensemble (Inner Rhyme, In a Circle Records (2019)). He also has performed numerous times with the Cecil McBee Quartet. He is an active performer in numerous music scenes in New York with frequent appearances at leading jazz, improvised music, and contemporary concert music venues and series, such as Roulette Intermedium, National Sawdust, and The Stone. His compositions have been performed at venues such as Merkin Hall (NYC), The Broad Stage (Santa Monica, CA), and on festivals such as Tribeca New Music (NYC), Lake Champlain Chamber Music Festival, and the Hear Now Music Festival (Los Angeles).

Phillip was also the musical dramaturg and music coordinator for … (Iphigenia), a new opera born out of a collaboration by Wayne Shorter and esperanza spalding. He has studied composition with Michael Finnissy and Julian Anderson and piano and improvisation with Jason Moran, Bruce Brubaker, Joe Morris, and Ran Blake. He holds degrees from Harvard University (B.A. English), The Guildhall School of Music & Drama (M.Mus. Composition), and The New England Conservatory (M.M. Jazz Performance).  Phillip is also an advocate for independent music artists’ labor rights as a member and organizer for Music Workers Alliance.

🌐 https://www.phillipgolubmusic.com/

💿 “Rag Out!” on Bandcamp (supports artists directly): https://phillipgolub.bandcamp.com/track/rag-out

💿 “Filters” on Bandcamp (supports artists directly):

https://phillipgolub.bandcamp.com/album/filters

Saad’s main channel: https://www.youtube.com/@saadhaddadmusic

👨🏻‍🏫 BOOK a lesson with me here: https://www.saadnhaddad.com/lessons.html

📰 NEWSLETTER that shares the latest news about my music and shows:  https://saadnhaddad.us9.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=d52b653fc543f4ca604265d53&id=70d2af18c6

🕒 Timestamps 

00:39 Wayne Shorter

08:22 “Abiding Memory,” for electric guitar, cello, piano, bass, and drums

15:13 Graffiti composing

16:00 Phillip’s “original rag”

18:18 “Rag Out!,” for solo piano

21:52 Band-leading as composing 

28:05 Composing as a pianist

29:15 “Filters,” for solo piano

31:28 Notating rubato

35:30 “Filters,” for “piano+”

39:45 What happened to composer-performer virtuosos?

44:10 Thinking like a pianist

49:20 Saad has a rhythm problem

Brandon Patrick George is a leading flute soloist and Grammy®-nominated chamber musician whose repertoire extends from the Baroque era to today. He is the flutist of Imani Winds and has appeared as a soloist with the Atlanta, Baltimore, and Albany symphonies, American Composers Orchestra, and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s, among others. He has been praised as “elegant” by The New York Times, as a“virtuoso” by The Washington Post, and as a “knockout musician with a gorgeous sound” by The Philadelphia Inquirer. His debut album was released by Haenssler Classics in September 2020; The New York Times has described it as “a program that showcases the flute in all its wit, warmth and brilliance.” 🌐 https://www.brandonpatrickgeorge.com/ 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Bandcamp (supports artists directly): https://brandonpatrickgeorge.bandcamp.com/album/twofold-icr029 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/album/38iOCqOLGc6gMBAQv9Ddbg?si=_Q9cMe-JQrOtxKi60YcGNw 💿 “TWOFOLD” album on Apple Music: https://music.apple.com/us/album/twofold/1701806946