Jamshied Sharifi

From Wind Repertory Project
Jamshied Sharifi

Biography

Jamshied Sharifi (b. 17 October 1960, Topeka, Kan.) is a New York-based composer, producer and keyboardist.

Sharifi was born to an Iranian father and an American mother. At an early age, Sharifi was exposed to jazz and Middle Eastern music by his father and to European classical and church music by his mother. He began to study classical piano at age five and quickly developed a thirst for musical instruction and a desire to improvise. At age nine he began studying guitar and drums, and at age ten added flute.

He graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1983 with a degree in humanities, and Summa Cum Laude from Berklee College of Music in Boston, with a degree in Jazz Composition and Arranging. At MIT and Berklee, he studied with the legendary Herb Pomeroy, who asked him at graduation to lead the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble. While in Boston, Sharifi studied piano with Charlie Banacos, and West African drumming with Godwin Agbeli and Abubakari Lunna.

Sharifi’s previous work ranges from composing scores for major motion pictures, performing and recording with his own world music ensemble to producing and arranging for other artists. He also served as an arranger for President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Concert We Are One. He has performed at many prestigious venues throughout the world, including Carnegie Hall and Radio City Music Hall in New York, the Hollywood Bowl and the Getty Center in Los Angeles, the Opera Theater in Sydney, Cité de la Musique in Paris and Svetlanovsky Hall in Moscow.

Jamshied Sharifi’s remarkable professional career as a composer and keyboardist, producer and arranger, has included work for motion pictures, his own world music ensemble, collaboration with artists such as Ray Charles and arrangements for the Inauguration of President Barack Obama. Sharifi is an MIT and Berklee College of Music alumnus.


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