Cymin Samawatie is a singer, conductor, and composer of contemporary music. She gained international reputation as the singer of her jazz ensemble Cyminology, whose latest three albums were released with the Munich-based record label ECM. The most recent album »Phoenix« was recorded in collaboration with Martin Stegner (viola, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra).

In her compositions, Cymin Samawatie blends impressionist colors of sound with the vibrancy of contemporary jazz. She combines new compositional structures with chamber music, free improvisation and minimalism with Persian poetry from the 12th to the 21th centuries.

With her quartet Sunique, she pursues the musical synthesis of Japanese and Persian traditions.

She composed commissioned works for the Osnabrück Morgenlandfestival, for Polymorfilms Brussels, Pro Artibus Orchestra Hannover, as well as for projects of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Particularly, Cymin Samawatie creates new pieces for Trickster Orchestra, which she founded in 2013 with Ketan Bhatti, e.g. in the framework of Nächte des Ramadan festival, Jazzfest Berlin, Silk Road Festival Baku, and of her own festival Modara – Fest für Zeitgenössische Musik. Here, she follows conceptual methods of composition, which integrate approaches such as improvisation and mimesis into the attempt of joining diverse musical languages and traditions, and incorporating them into contemporary sound.

In March 2017, Cymin Samawatie was co-curator and musical director of the festival Female Voice of Iran and the Female Voice of Iran Orchestra, which was founded in this framework financed by the Federal Cultural Foundation. She taught at the Academy Arts School, she is involved in the Berlin Philharmonic’s education program, and engages in the musical education of young refugees. She also hosts the Music Lounges, a series of concerts and improvisations at the Galerie Kremers in Kreuzberg.

As a solo singer, Cymin Samawatie collaborated with Bobby McFerrin, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Martin Stegner, Frank Möbus, Korhan Erel, Roger Willemsen, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Pro Artibus, as well as with students of Popakademie Mannheim and with the pop band Kamakân. Cymin Samawatie’s ensembles and projects received national and international praise and were awarded the German World Music Award RUTH, the creole World Music Award, the Jazz & Blues Award, the Möbus Jazz Award, the New Generation Award, and multiple research stipends. In 2018, Cymin Samawatie was a fellow of Tarabya Cultural Academy, Istanbul.