Samer Ali Founder and Artistic Director
A native of Syria, Samer Ali is a physician, violinist, composer, founder and artistic director of the Syrian Music Preservation Initiative.
Samer has led Takht al-Nagham, SMPI's ensemble, in New York at Alwan for the Arts, Scandinavia House, and Roulette Intermedium; as well as at the Kennedy center in Washington, DC with Syrian soprano Lubana al-Quntar.
He began studying western classical violin at the age of eight with Fawaz al-Ali and Ali Farran, and later pursued intensive conservatory studies with Ali Mukhtar Babayev. He studied the Arab music traditions with Simon Shaheen, Anwar Hariri, and Muhammad Qadri Dalal.
In Damascus, he co-founded Awj Ensemble, and has continued to perform in the US with groups like the Bronx Orchestra and the National Arab Orchestra.
In medicine, Samer received his M.D. from Syria and later graduated from medical residency in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Mount Sinai Hospital. He is currently a Surgical Pathology Fellow at Lenox Hill Hospital in New York.
