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Shabnam J. Kermani

About

Shabnam J. Kermani is a composer, conductor, producer, engineer, and audiovisual artist from Tehran, Iran, residing in San Francisco, California. A 2022 Berklee College of Music Film Scoring and Conducting graduate, Shabnam gained her Master’s degree in Music Production, Technology, and Innovation at Berklee Valencia in 2023.

Shabnam grew up in an art-loving family in Tehran, Iran. Her immersion in the arts - encouraged by her family as they filled the house with international and national music, sculpture, and visual arts - imprinted a sincere appreciation of different forms of artwork within her which continues to inspire her today. She received her initial training in piano in Iran, and under the instruction of well-known professors such as Saghar Razavizadeh, Jila Dargahi, and Clara Bokuchava - from the Tehran Conservatory of Music - in the European classical tradition.

Currently working as a professional composer, audio engineer, and visual design artist, Shabnam has composed original scores for numerous short films (Taste of Pomegranate, dir. Sean Ahmadzadeh, 2022; Sweet & Sour, dir. Nandita Goel, 2022) and animations (Watched, 2022 and Letter Flow, 2024 by dir. Iris Kouwenberg) in various styles of music and instrumental arrangements, as well as acting as the producer, engineer, or assistant engineer for several artists at Berklee, which has given her a rich knowledge of working with musicians with different musical backgrounds, and leading rehearsals and recording sessions.

Shabnam transferred to Berklee in 2019 after two years at the San Francisco State University where she double-majored in Cinema and Classics, and minored in Music. Her time at both Berklee Boston and Berklee Valencia granted her a thorough, fulfilling, and extensive education in composition, music theory, orchestration, arrangement, ensemble performance, music technology, recording techniques, and the music production process, including but not limited to, mixing, mastering, notation and copyist works, session management, and writing for and conducting orchestra and chamber ensembles. Additionally, she enhanced her skills on the piano and her performance techniques as both a solo and ensemble musician under the tutelage of noteworthy professors such as Vadim Neselovskyi, Stephany Tiernan, Jennifer Elowsky-Fox, Barbara LaFitte, and Gustavo Agatiello.

Shabnam has formally studied Classical Piano for 17 years and composition for 6 years. In composition, she received extensive training in theory, and writing for concert, media, conducting and interdisciplinary works from distinguished professors such as Alla Cohen, Richard Davis, Claudio Ragazzi, Geneviève Leclair, Timothy Huling, Alison Plante, Beth Denisch, Claes Nystrom, Jeanine Cowen, Kurt Biederwolf, Richard Carrick, Anne Goldberg-Baldwin, George Monseur, Irina Georgieva, Apostolos Paraskevas, Yoon-Ji Lee, and many more. She was selected as one of only 6 students chosen each semester for the Berklee Advanced Orchestration and Recording Techniques course, which involved composing a piece for a full orchestra, conducting and recording it with a live orchestra on bi-weekly basis. During her studies at Berklee, she was awarded the prestigious Ramin Djawadi Scholarship which recognizes a student who will "make a significant contribution to society through music."

It was during her Master’s at Berklee Valencia that Shabnam received a thorough education in, and realized her passion for audio engineering, recording and music production, as well as multimedia works and installations, video production, and live visual design and performance. She had the opportunity to learn from distinguished professors such as Marta Verde Baqueiro, Pablo Schuller, Sergi Palau, Simone Tanda, Daniel Castelar, Pablo Munguia, and worked as a volunteer alongside Magda Giannikou for Berklee concert productions.

Shabnam’s thesis, an interactive installation about the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in her home country of Iran was showcased in May 2023 in Valencia and gained her a distinction award upon graduation for “producing a culminating experience that represents outstanding achievement and presents a significant contribution to scholarly and/or artistic inquiry in the area of study”. This installation was also just recently showcased at Festival Sarao and Maison de la Conversation in Paris, France.

In her field, Shabnam has been involved with companies and organizations such as Prolific Sound Solutions, INOCON Tech Conference, Mpath Music, Berklee a Les Arts, La Nit de Berklee, Audio Engineering Society (AES), Women's Film Initiative, Morningside Music Studio, Berklee Iranian Student Association, and Colorful Bridges.

She has always been fascinated by the power of music as a storyteller that brings all people, no matter their backgrounds, together, and she fell in love with composition after moving to the U.S. in 2014. In her music, her main goal is to tell stories through sound, and draws upon her Iranian heritage as well as her studies in the field of archaeology and mythology. Shabnam aspires to bring a unique and innovative voice to the professional music industry not only as a composer, musician, and producer, but also as a creative storyteller.

 

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Download Resume

Scoring Credits:

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“Taste of Pomegranate” - 2022 (Composer)

"Letter Flow" - 2024 (Composer)

“Sweet & Sour” - 2022 (Composer)

“L’agonie” - 2022 (Music Supervisor)

“Watched” - 2022 (Composer)

“With Love: Prof & Pax” - 2021 (Composer)

“In the Headlights” - 2018 (Composer)

"Shabnam is on her way to become a very original, authentic artist. She merges her Iranian cultural roots with everything that she has discovered during her studies at Berklee, and it’s a fascinating journey to follow! I am very much looking forward to hearing more music from this talented young musician!”

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- Vadim Neselovskyi

   Pianist, Composer, and Professor at

   Berklee College of Music

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