Winner: Sina Karachiani
Sina Karachiani—Born in Esfahan, Iran—first discovered his passion for piano and music when he was in elementary school and later became interested in improvisation and composition. He took piano lessons and self-studied composition and orchestration in Iran while focusing on science at school. He started his formal music education after immigrating to California in (2013).
He studied Piano Performance, Music Composition, and Engineering at Irvine Valley College under the mentorship of Dr. Daniel Luzko and Dr. Stephen Rochford. He received several awards for his compositions, including the first prize in the statewide MACCC Composition Contest for his Double Bass sonata.
He later continued his studies in Music Composition as well as Computer Science at University of Southern California where he was fortunate to study with many great composers such as Dr. Donald Crockett, Dr. Frank Ticheli, and Andrew Norman. He also continued his piano studies with Dr. Pierce, Dr. Park, and Russel Ferrante, and started learning the Viola. Of the highlights of his time at USC was the premier of his orchestra piece, Whirling Onward by USC Thornton Symphony Orchestra.
Sina graduated Summa Cum Laude from USC in May 2020 with a B.M. in Composition and a B.S. in Computer Science and was awarded with the Renaissance Scholar Prize and Discovery Scholar distinction for his multi-disciplinary studies as well as collection of musical compositions about self-exploration and personal growth. Sina has been since working as a Software Engineer at Apple and has continued composing music and collaborating with other artists on several projects.
Writing music is a therapeutic and spiritual process for Sina, one that allows him to get in touch with his deeper emotions and inner self to express himself free of words and sentences. Consecutively, Sina likes to explore concepts of self, time, and human expression, while drawing influence from his heritage such as Persian lyricism and folklore.
When he is not busy with coding or music, he takes leisure in exploring cities, nature, food, learning about planes, and drawing. Sina would like to thank his teachers, friends, and especially family for their love and support, and he is very grateful to be able to share his work with others.
