“As strongly influenced by his native country’s idiom yet also undeniably informed by classical training and the world of academic new music—a healthy balance.“—SF Classical Voice
 
Born in 1981 in Tehran, Iran, Sahba Aminikia studied music composition in Russia at the St. Petersburg State Conservatory under Boris Ivanovich Tishchenko, a post-graduate student of Dimitri Shostakovich. In his homeland, Aminikia studied under renowned Iranian pianists Nikan Milani, Safa Shahidi and Gagik Babayan. He was influenced by work with his first teacher and renown composer Dr. Mehran Rouhani, a post-graduate of Royal Academy of Music & former student of Sir Michael Tippett.
 
He received his B.M. and M.M. with honors from San Francisco Conservatory of Music under Dan Becker, David Garner, & David Conte where he was the proud recipient of Phyllis Wattis Foundation scholarship. He has also received lessons from Conrad Susa, Richard Danielpour, John Corigliano, Oswaldo Golijov, and John Adams.
 
He is the recipient of commissions from theatre troops, contemporary classical ensembles, film scores, Persian traditional music groups to jazz bands including Kronos Quartet, Symphony Parnassus, San Francisco Conservatory of Music New Music Ensemble, Mobius Trio, Delphi Trio and Living Earth Show and has collaborated with artists such as Rashin Fahandej & Taraneh Hemami.
 
His third string quartet, A Threnody for Those Who Remain, commissioned by Yerba Buena Center for the Arts & Kronos Performing Arts Association was described by Financial Times as “an experience not to be easily forgotten.”
 
Recent projects include a second commission for Kronos Quartet: Tar o Pood (Warp and Weft), based on actual recordings of Persian carpet-weavers work songs. Aminikia is the 2014 Great Lakes Chamber Music Festival’s Fellow Artist Composer, through which his most recent piece Shabo Meh (Night and Fog), was commissioned & premiered by the San Francisco-based Delphi Trio.