SAAD HADDAD Is an Arab-American composer residing in Los Angeles, California and is in his junior year at the University of Southern California, majoring in Music Composition.  In recent years, the composer has developed an affinity for orchestral music, earning an 'Alternate' designation with Maelstrom (2012) for the 2013 Minnesota Orchestra Composer Institute and winning the 2010 ASCAP Young Composer Award for Heart of the Hall (2009), which was premiered by the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Walt Disney Concert Hall.  Maelstrom will be premiered by the USC Symphony in February 2013.

Saad has also been recognized for his work in choral music, earning the Boston Metro Opera’s 2013 “Mainstage Award” for his song cycle, The Wanderer (2011), as well as composing two new commissions for the Hollywood Master Chorale for their 2012 and 2013 seasons.  In the summer of 2011, Saad was selected as the youngest of fourteen students across the United States to study with Professor Samuel Adler of the Juilliard School in Berlin as part of the Freie Universitat in Berlin International Summer Program.  His cello duo piece, Zwiegespräch, was premiered at the end of the program, and is the composer’s European debut. The piece has been performed at the University of Michigan and the Juilliard School in their 2011-12 seasons, and went on to earn a Finalist designation in the 2012 ASCAP Young Composer Awards.  Saad’s composition professors include Drs. Frank Ticheli, Mark Weiser, Stephen Hartke, Samuel Adler, Donald Crockett, and Steven Stucky.                           
            
In addition to his concert work, Saad has composed the soundtracks to over 20 short films, eight of which were recorded live by the Thornton School of Music at the John Williams Scoring Stage.  Saad is currently slated to score “Core Overload,” a USC video game thesis and “Matchbox,” a USC film thesis, both which will be released in May 2013.  In October 2012, the Thornton School of Music named Saad the inaugural “James Newton Howard Scholar” for his work in film music.  As part of that distinction, the school commissioned him to compose On the Hearth, an orchestral piece written in honor of film composer James Newton Howard for the 2012 Charles Dickens Dinner at the Millenium Biltmore Hotel in Los Angeles.