Jamshied Sharifi

2011-12 and 2015 MIT Visiting Artist

MIT Visiting Artist and alumnus Jamshied Sharifi wins a Tony Award in 2018. Photo: Jemal Countess/Getty Images for Tony Awards Productions.

Jamshied Sharifi, Philip Khoury, Obaidah Abuhashem, and Emily Jackson participate in an interdisciplinary panel titled Awakening the Arab Spring in Killian Hall. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.

MIT Visiting Artist and alumnus Jamshied Sharifi with members of the MIT Wind Ensemble. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.

Frederick Harris Jr, Director of the MIT Wind Ensemble with Visiting Artist Jamshied Sharifi. Photo: L. Barry Hetherington.

Composer, producer, and keyboardist Jamshied Sharifi '83 premiered "Awakening" in commemoration of the revolutionary uprisings of the Arab Spring

About the Residency

Composer Jamshied Sharifi wrote Awakening in 2012 for the MIT Wind Ensemble (MITWE). In 2015, Sharifi was joined at MIT in concert with the MIT Wind Ensemble, Frederick Harris, Jr., music director, MITWE alumni, and guest performers. MITWE’s premiere of this piece is the subject of the 2014 Emmy-winning documentary “Awakening: Evoking the Arab Spring Through Music,” that aired on PBS. Also on the program was the world premiere of a wind ensemble work by Peter Godart ’15; Holst, Second Suite in F; Grainger, The Gum-Suckers March; and Francaix’s 11 Variations on a Theme of Haydn.

The MIT Wind Ensemble is composed of outstanding MIT student musicians studying a wide variety of fields. Since 2001, the MIT Wind Ensemble has commissioned 20 original works by MIT faculty and internationally renowned composers.

Presented by the MIT Visiting Artists Program and MIT Music and Theater Arts.

Schedule

A Unity of Purpose—a musical celebration for Jamshied Sharifi
Wednesday, September 17, 2025 / 8:30pm
Thomas Tull Concert Hall, MIT Linde Music Building

Celebrating the life and artistry of Jamshied Sharifi and his vision of seeking transcendence in music, long-time collaborators join the MIT Wind Ensemble, MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble, and MIT Concert Choir, to honor his memory. Mirabai Ceiba, Megan Gould, Eleanor Norton, and Evan Zipoyrn, join MIT musicians to premiere Sharifi’s last arrangements, close to his heart, and perform some of his original music. The event is free and open to the public.

Reserve tickets

Past Events

Awakening, composed by Jamshied Sharifi
March 13, 2015 / 8:00pm
MIT Kresge Auditorium
48 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA

Awakening: A World Premiere by Jamshied Sharifi
March 17, 2012

MIT Wind Ensemble concert program: Divertissement for Winds; Copland, Variations on a Shaker Melody; Schuman, When Jesus Wept; Bernstein, Profanation from Symphony no. 1; and the world premiere of Sharifi’s Awakening. Performed by the MIT Wind Ensemble: Frederick Harris, Jr., Music Director, Kenneth Amis, Assistant Conductor, and Jamshied Sharifi, Composer-in-Residence.

Awakening the Arab Spring Panel
March 13, 2012
A panel with Visiting Artist Jamshied Sharifi, Philip S. Khoury, Associate Provost and Ford International Professor of History, and MIT students Obaidah Abuhashem and Emily Jackson.

Residency Schedule

Artist Presentations
Guest Composer and Director of MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble
March 15, 2012

Class Visits
Guest Lecture in Introduction to World Music class
February 13-14, 2012

Exploratory Research
Music at MIT Oral History Project interview
February 27, 2012

Student Dinner for MIT Wind Ensemble
March 12, 2012

Collaborators at MIT

Fred Harris, Director of the MIT Wind Ensemble and the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble and Lecturer in Music, MIT Department of Music and Theater Arts

Biography

As composer, arranger, conductor, record producer, and keyboardist, Jamshied Sharifi was a global citizen of the music world. His own compositions fused elements of Middle Eastern and African music and jazz, going straight to the hearts of listeners. His first solo record, A Prayer for the Soul of Layla, was named Best Contemporary World Music Album at the first annual New Age Voice Music Awards. His passion for film music led to his scoring and/or contributing music for numerous major studio and independent films such as The Thomas Crown Affair, Harriet The Spy, and Clockstoppers, as well as television shows and PBS broadcasts. As a producer, arranger, and keyboardist, Sharifi recorded and/or performed with Paula Cole, Ray Charles, Dream Theater, Laurie Anderson, Hassan Hakmoun, Snatam Kaur, Stevie Wonder, Mirabai Ceiba, and many others, and wrote orchestrations for the Broadway shows The Last Ship, by Sting, and The Band’s Visit, for which he won the 2018 Tony Award for “Best Orchestrations.”

A graduate of MIT (1983) and the Berklee College of Music (1985), Jamshied Sharifi was endlessly devoted to composing music for MIT students. From his first year as an undergraduate to the current year, a 45-year span from 1980 to 2025, he wrote nearly 40 pieces including works for the MIT Festival Jazz Ensemble (an organization in which he performed and then led for seven years), the MIT Wind Ensemble, and two MIT large-scale Jacob Collier events. Among his array of music for MIT is Awakening (in recognition of the Arab Spring), A Resistance, Now, and Praeordinatus Ut Astra Sacrificia Nostra (“Fore-Ordained As Stars Our Sacrifices”), premiered in March 2025 as part of MIT’s Artfinity Festival and in honor of the inaugural season of the Thomas Tull Concert Hall. Sharifi’s original music and arrangements, and he himself, are featured on two New England Emmy-winning MIT documentary films produced by MIT Video Productions.

More at the artist’s website: Jamshied Sharifi.