Sahba Aminikia

Sahba Aminikia (Persian: صهبا امینی کیا) (born August 27, 1981) is an Iranian-born American contemporary music composer, artistic director, performer, educator and a TED Fellow.

[5] Raised during a religious theocracy, in a poetic yet chaotic society, he had been exposed to the influences of poets such as Hafiz, Rumi, Forough Farrokhzad and Ahmad Shamlu, as well as traditional, classical and jazz music and the music of Shostakovich, Reza Vali, Stravinsky, Philip Glass, Osvaldo Golijov, Aziza Mustafazadeh, Pink Floyd, The Beatles, and Queen during his upbringing.

[7] During his graduate studies at San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Aminikia was the proud recipient of a Phyllis C. Wattis Foundation scholarship.

And similarly, his widely known “Tar o Pood” (Warp and Weft)—commissioned by Nasrin Marzban for Kronos Quartet—was the second-place recipient of the 2015 American Prize in composition in the Professional Chamber Music category.

[9] As part of a Virtual reality experience, he wrote the music for "Sea Prayer" by The Guardian based on a story by the acclaimed author Khalid Hosseini which was performed by Kronos Quartet and British multi-instrumentalist, David Coulter.