American vocalist and composer Samuel Siskind (b. 2006) was selected by producer David Foster to sing “You Raise Me Up” in a concert featuring Katharine McPhee and Ryan Tedder. His choral work The Road Not Taken received its premiere in 2026, when he served as a Composer Fellow in Choral Arts Initiative’s PREMIERE|Project Festival.

Later this year, he can be heard on the National Youth Opera Academy official album of Odyssey by Ben Moore and Kelley Rourke, singing the role of First Mate with the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by GRAMMY® Award-winning conductor Luke McEndarfer. Samuel made his operatic debut in 2017 as Sem in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde conducted by James Conlon at LA Opera. 

He performed the title role in The Tinker of Tivoli with the National Youth Opera Academy and has appeared as a soloist with the National Children’s Chorus in both Handel’s Messiah and on their album Illumine, recorded at Abbey Road Studios also with the London Symphony Orchestra. He sang in the choir on the GRAMMY® Award-winning Los Angeles Philharmonic live recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. 

As a composer, Siskind was commissioned by Suzi Digby OBE and The Golden Bridge in 2023 to write Out From the Deep, which received the 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award and can be heard on his debut compositional album, Awake, which received five stars from Fanfare, as “remarkable choral, vocal and piano music. CAI opened their 13th Season with Siskind’s choral Cycle, Release (2024).

His music has been heard at venues including Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium, UCLA’s Royce Hall, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and the Yellowstone International Arts Festival. His work The Forest was selected to open the Lindenbaum Peace Festival in an internationally televised performance from the Korean DMZ.

A two-time LA Phil Composer Fellow, he was selected for the inaugural Juilliard Summer Composition Program, and received Honorable Mention in the LA Music Center Spotlight for Classical Voice. Samuel has performed in Independent films and was chosen by Madonna to appear in her music video “God Control.” 

Siskind’s musical training includes studies at the USC Thornton School of Music where he performs with the Thornton Chamber Singers.