Composer Saad Haddad. Photo by Matt Dine.
In Thursday’s (3/13) I Care If You Listen, Sofía Rocha writes, “Composer Saad Haddad’s music is energetic, full of life and vitality, and quite inventive—twisting and turning in unexpected but welcome musical directions that draw from his unique background and influences. His music is often microtonal, using notes in between and around the Western twelve-note chromatic set. This is particularly striking in his integration of Maqams (Arabic modes) for pitch material, though he also incorporates Western approaches to microtonality. A graduate of Columbia, Juilliard, and the University of Southern California, Haddad has … commissions from IRCAM and the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the International Contemporary Ensemble. Haddad was named the California Symphony’s 2023-2026 Young American Composer-in-Residence, a position that includes three new commissions … The second of these pieces, Fantasia for Strings, is set to premiere March 22-23 in Walnut Creek, CA…. Haddad: ‘Every part of the [California Symphony] is completely supportive of the idea of having someone like me come twice a year to in a sense, ‘shake things up.’ I love experimenting with musicians that are open to trying new things and through my residency, I’ve been able to discover new sound worlds.’ ”
