Samy Moussa was born in Montréal and did his first musical studies there before heading off to Europe, where he has lived for some 10 years. A graduate of Université de Montréal, he was a student of José Evangelista and has benefited from the teaching of a number of other world-renowned composers, who include Kaija Saariaho, Salvatore Sciarrino and Pascal Dusapin. His career as a conductor has involved masterclasses with Pierre Boulez and Peter Eötvös.

Despite his young age, Moussa has already received numerous commissions for works from well-known ensembles and musicians. In 2015 his creative work earned him the Prix Opus for Composer of the Year, a distinction that was a sort of crowning moment for a career already broadly acclaimed. Performed by ensembles both in Canada and in Europe, including Scandinavia, Samy Moussa’s music was also the subject of a concert portrait at the Munich Biennale in 2009.

The catalogue of Samy Moussa’s works contains close to 30 titles with the potential to appeal to music lovers of different stripes, containing as it does chamber music, music for solo instrument, opera and music for full orchestra – a full five of his pieces the result of commissions from the OSM. The composer is adept at shaping and combining tenuous atmospheres and mass effects, exploiting the possibilities offered by each instrument to vary and enrich the coloring of the instrumental fabric.