LA-based composer and baritone Samuel Siskind is a high school senior whose music has already garnered significant international recognition. A winner of the 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award after placing as a finalist in 2023, Samuel is also an LA Phil Composing Fellow, under the direction of acclaimed composer Andrew Norman.

This summer, Samuel released his debut album, Awake, a collection of vocal works performed by New York’s esteemed vocal group Fourth Wall Ensemble, conducted by Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award winner Christopher Allen. The album features performances by GRAMMY® nominated baritone Johnathan McCullough and ends with a piano composition performed by Siskind.

Awake was recorded in New York shortly after the premiere of “Soaring Dreams,” at Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium by the GRAMMY Award-winning® National Children’s Chorus. Reflecting on composing “Soaring Dreams,” an eight-part choral work crafted during the mental health challenges of the lockdown, Samuel describes the experience as “an exhilarating escape from the isolation.”

At age 15, Samuel was the youngest composer to be commissioned by The Golden Bridge, under Artistic Director, Suzi Digby OBE and patron Morton Laurenson. For the commission, Samuel chose to reimagine the a cappella Thomas Tallis Renaissance classic, “Out from the Deep.” Samuel wrote original text for the piece which completed his choral cycle, “Release” which was recognized as a finalist for the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Young Composer Award.  “Out from the Deep” went on to win the award in 2024.

An avid hiker, Samuel draws much of his inspiration from the natural sounds and landscapes he encounters. Beginning formal composition study with UCLA Professor Ian Krouse at age 11, he composed “The Forest,'' to his original text, incorporating motifs developed during his early musical explorations. 

“The Forest'' premiered in 2018 at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall and Royce Hall in LA before touring Asia, notably opening the Lindenbaum Peace Festival in an internationally televised performance from the DMZ in collaboration with musicians from North and South Korea. His orchestral waltz, “Rain,” written at age 12 and inspired by summer camp rainstorms, was choreographed by Alisher Kasanov and performed under the stars at the Yellowstone International Arts Festival 2020 by Nadia Khan of the Rome Opera Theater.

First joining the National Children’s Chorus in 2015, Samuel is a frequently featured soloist at concerts from Lincoln Center to the UK and has performed on five international summer tours including at St. Peter’s Basilica Vatican, St. Mark’s in Venice, the Berlin Wall and Musikverein Vienna.

He can be heard as the baritone soloist of John Leavett’s “Ose Shalom” recorded at the legendary Abbey Road Studios for the NCC album “Illumine,” with the London Symphony Orchestra which garnered over one million streams on initial release. In Vail, Colorado, he performed the title role in Michael Jacobson’s “The Tinker of Tivoli,” with the National Youth Opera Academy, based on the music of Rossini.

In 2017, Samuel performed the principal role of Sem in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde under the direction of Maestro James Conlon at the LA Opera. On screen, his performance of Panis Angelicus is prominent in the award-winning independent film The Uncanny (2022). Chosen by Madonna, he can be seen featured in her music video for God Control directed by Jonas Åkerlund. 

Additional accolades include Classical Voice Semifinalist at the LA Music Center’s Spotlight Awards; GRAMMY® performer certificate for performing with the NCC on the Best Choral Recording, Gustavo Dudamel’s Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the LA Philharmonic; Best Actor nomination Official Latino Film Festival for the title role in Little Angel; Best Performance in a Musical Stagedoor Manor Performing Arts Center NY for Brett in “Children’s Letter to God.”

This summer, Samuel was a student at Juilliard’s inaugural Summer Composition Program, under the guidance of the esteemed program director and acclaimed composer, David Sekin-Ludwig.