Amir ElSaffar is an Iraqi-American composer, trumpeter, santur player, vocalist, and modular synthesist working at the intersections of jazz, Western classical, and maqam music of Iraq and the Middle East. He is best known for his work “explor(ing) vital connections between jazz and Arabic music” (New York Times) and for his pioneering work combining jazz and maqam, mainly through his Two Rivers sextet and 17-piece Rivers of Sound Orchestra.

As a jazz trumpeter, ElSaffar has performed in the ensembles of Cecil Taylor, Archie Shepp, Anthony Davis, Danilo Perez, William Parker, and Vijay Iyer, among others. As a composer and musical director, he has created works for symphony orchestras, string quartets, chamber ensembles, jazz ensembles, and Middle Eastern music ensembles, as well as hybrid projects with raga, flamenco, and Sub-Saharan African trance music. He is a renowned Iraqi santur player fluent in the millennia-old and nearly extinct Iraqi maqam and is musical director of the last living vocalist of the genre, Hamid Al-Saadi. ElSaffar’s works have been commissioned for and performed at major festivals and venues around the world. 

In 2024, ElSaffar founded Maqam Studio, a performance and workshop space in Brooklyn, and a record label, Maqam Records, with the mission of preserving and fostering the development of Iraqi maqam and related practices. He is currently working on an Arabic-language maqam opera.