Cymin Samawatie
Cymin Samawatie (*1976) is one of Germany's most versatile musicians. She has become internationally known as a singer and composer with her jazz ensemble Cyminology, whose most recent three albums, including a collaboration with violist Martin Stegner (Berlin Philharmonic), have been released by the Munich label ECM Records (www.cyminology.de). In Cymin Samawatie’s compositions, the sonic colors of impressionism merge with the vividness of contemporary jazz. She combines new compositional structures with chamber music, free improvisation and minimalism with Persian poetry from the 12th to the 21st century.
With Ketan Bhatti, Cymin Samawatie co-directs the Trickster Orchestra (www.tricksterorchestra.de). The trans-traditional soloists’ ensemble incorporates European, West, Central and East Asian instruments, as well as younger instruments such as electronics in a shared contemporary musical language that emerges from radical diversity and moves beyond established genres and between new music, global classical music traditions, jazz and free improvisation. 2021 saw the release of their debut album "Trickster Orchestra" with ECM Records. In 2022 the orchestra won the German Jazz Award as Best Large Ensemble and the TONALi Music Award "Courage for Utopia", one year later Cymin Samawatie and Ketan Bhatti were awarded the German Composers’ Award for their compositional work.
In her Cymin Samawatie Ensemble, founded in 2022, she shows herself for the first time from a new side as a pianist - avant-garde, multilingual, rich in tonal color. Fresh and expressive, with a great love of experimentation, she interweaves the warm timbres of wood with urban live electronics and free improvisation in her lyrical variation of Echtzeitmusik.
As a solo singer, Cymin Samawatie has collaborated with Bobby McFerrin, the Berlin Philharmonic, Martin Stegner, Frank Möbus, Korhan Erel, Roger Willemsen, Sasha Waltz & Guests, Pro Artibus, and the band Kamakân. Cymin Samwatie's ensembles and projects have received high national and international acclaim, including the German World Music Award RUTH, the creole Weltmusik Award, the Jazz & Blues Award, the Möbus Jazz Award, the New Generation Award, and most recently the Berlin Jazz Award, whose jury acclaimed, "Cymin Samawatie is an outstanding performer who constantly creates new connections with great energy and visionary ideas. As a pianist, singer, composer, and ensemble leader, she unites the most diverse cultures and languages into mutually inspiring art forms. She is an unmistakable voice of artistic freedom."
