“an artist singularly equipped to provide a soundtrack to these unsettling times”
- San Francisco Chronicle
Sahba Aminikia
Composer | Improvisor | TED Fellow | 2025 Aga Khan Music Award Laureate
Photo: Photo: TED / Ryan Lash
A laureate of the 2025 Aga Khan Music Award, a TED Fellow, Iranian-American composer Sahba Aminikia has established himself as an artist singularly equipped to interpret the complexities of our time, creating music that functions as both a visceral human experience and a catalyst for social change. Born in post-revolutionary wartime Iran, Aminikia’s creative voice was forged amidst a turbulent socio-political environment, shaping an oeuvre that navigates the dualities of light and darkness, hope and despair. His distinct sonic language—deeply influenced by the Persian poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and Saadi, yet equally indebted to the energy of Pink Floyd, Queen, and the improvisational spirit of jazz—transcends cultural boundaries to foster dialogue and enlightenment. This synthesis of Eastern philosophy and Western contemporary form is rooted in a rigorous education that spans continents; beginning under the mentorship of Mehran Rouhani and Nikan Milani in Iran, he continued his studies at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory in Russia under Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko, a protégé of Dmitri Shostakovich. He later engaged in advanced studies at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music as a Phyllis Wattis Foundation scholar, refining his craft with David Garner, Dan Becker, and David Conte, while receiving guidance from luminaries such as David Harrington, John Corigliano, and Aleksandra Vrebalov.
Over the course of the last twenty years, Aminikia has created 85 works and commissions, a prolific output championed by widely acclaimed ensembles, most notably the Kronos Quartet, for whom he served as artist-in-residence at the 2017 Kronos Festival, San Francisco Girls Chorus, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Shahram Nazeri, Mahsa Vahdat, Marjan Vahdat and ZOFO Duet. His collaborations with the Quartet include Music of Spheres (released on Orange Mountain Music), Four Seasons (a threnody for Lake Urmia commissioned for Kronos’s 50th Anniversary), and Sea Prayer, a VR experience created for The Guardian based on Khaled Hosseini’s text. His compositions have resonated in prestigious venues worldwide, including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, SFJAZZ, St. Ann’s Warehouse, and Le Poisson Rouge, drawing critical praise for their emotional urgency. The Financial Times hailed his third string quartet, A Threnody for Those Who Remain—commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts—as “an experience not to be easily forgotten,” while his piece Tar o Pood (Warp and Weft) was recognized as a second-place recipient of the American Prize in Composition. His recent repertoire expands into large-scale choral and multimedia works, such as SHAMS, a collaboration with the Verdigris Ensemble inspired by Rumi, and The Language of the Birds. Beyond the manuscript, Aminikia’s practice is defined by a profound commitment to humanitarian outreach; as a TED Fellow and the Founder and Artistic Director of the Flying Carpet Festival, as well as Musical Director for Sirkhane, he utilizes music and circus arts to bring education and healing to hundreds of thousands of children in war-torn regions near the Syrian border, solidifying his belief in art as a resilient force for communication and survival.
" The music of Iranian-American composer Sahba Aminikia is analogous to water. Variably complex or simple, it flows in gentle, naturally syncopated rhythms and structures reminiscent of light rain falling amid sunshine on a rooftop in one work, while another piece’s metronomic regularity is like a steadily dripping faucet. A third piece arrives fully orchestrated with the torrential swoosh of a downpour."
- SF Classical Voice
From my own mouth
The dichotomy between light and dark, to me, is clear; yet, through music, I aim to find the moment where the former emerges. Growing in a newly born democracy amid war and in the aftermath of a revolution, I, along with many in my generation, experienced a tumultuous childhood. We witnessed the evolution of a grassroots movement: from mass-executions, war, and violence into a society where internet and social media continues to alter the political and social infrastructure. I was born and raised in Tehran, where the traditions of the past and the most progressive influences of the region are constantly in a state of struggle. Living in such a conflict, I needed to define my own identity, dismissing a wide variety of the choices that were already made for me and my peers.
In the Iran of 1980s, music was completely banned from media and live events. It was only permissible in public in the format of revolutionary chants and Quran recitations. Later on, in the late 1980s, Persian traditional music and western classical music were added to this list. Moreover. women have always been banned from singing in public, starting with the Islamic revolution and with the downfall of the Shah in 1979. Later, from the very early days that I started living outside of Iran, I realized that being brought up in such circumstances had given me a hopeful outlook.
Life in Tehran taught me to appreciate hardship and beauty at the same time, and this is something that, due to heavy media propaganda, is mainly obscured in Western minds. I was brought up with the poetry of Hafiz, Rumi, and Saadi, and with Persian classical music, but was also largely exposed to the music of Pink Floyd, Beatles, Queen, and various jazz musicians. This conflict between the morals of a theocracy and Western cultural imports also exists in my mind, and I see it as a life process towards finding a common ground for communication and dialogue in my music.
I respect music as a medium of communication, enabling me to share my experiences with audiences of different backgrounds. Recognizing hope and beauty in the most horrific human experiences, I often aim to include people of different backgrounds in a process that sympathetically understands what our fellow humans endure. The result has the potential to further develop a particular sensitivity in human beings which enables us to immerse in our fellow humans’ griefs and joys, considering them our own. Saadi Shirazi, the 13th-century Persian poet, depicts this mind-set marvelously:
Human beings are members of a whole
In creation of one essence and soul.
If one member is afflicted with pain
Other members uneasy will remain.
If you have no sympathy for human pain
The name of human you cannot retain.
FLying Carpet Festival
A Unified Artistic Voice For Aminikia, the festival is the physical manifestation of his musical philosophy. Just as his compositions explore the tension between light and dark—drawing from the transcendent poetry of Rumi and the visceral realities of his own upbringing in post-revolutionary Iran—the festival acts as a vessel for communication and dialogue. It transforms the abstract concept of "music as a catalyst for change" into a tangible reality, ensuring that the transformative power of sound reaches those who need it most.
Founded by Sahba Aminikia, the Flying Carpet Festival is a mobile arts festival dedicated to bringing hope, beauty, and creative education to vulnerable children in war-torn regions. Operating near the Turkish-Syrian border, the festival serves as a platform where international artists and musicians collaborate with refugee and local children, utilizing music and circus arts to bridge deep cultural and emotional divides.
Philosophy & Vision At the heart of the Flying Carpet Festival is the belief that art is not a luxury, but a fundamental human right and a necessary tool for survival. In environments defined by conflict and displacement, the festival provides a sanctuary of "enlightenment amid darkness," offering children a medium to reclaim their narratives through creativity. By engaging over 400,000 children through the Sirkhane non-profit, the initiative fosters resilience, proving that culture can flourish even in the most turbulent socio-political environments.