Samuel Siskind (b. 2006) is an American vocalist and composer. He made his operatic debut in 2017 as Sem in Britten’s Noye’s Fludde with Los Angeles Opera under the baton of James Conlon, followed by singing the title role in Michael Jacobsen’s The Tinker of Tivoli with the National Youth Opera Academy. He recently appeared as the bass soloist in Handel’s Messiah with the GRAMMY® Award-winning National Children’s Chorus. Samuel was selected by producer David Foster to sing “You Raise Me Up” at the Pacific Palisades Village Reopening in a concert that also featured Katharine McPhee and Ryan Tedder. 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.

Other notable performances include appearances as a soloist with the National Children’s Chorus (NCC) on their album Illumine, recorded at Abbey Road Studios with the London Symphony Orchestra, and in the chorus of the GRAMMY® Award-winning Los Angeles Philharmonic’s live concert recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. He has performed as the baritone soloist in concert with NCC on multiple occasions, including on tour in London with VOCES8. He was featured in the independent film The Uncanny, singing “Panis Angelicus,” and was chosen by Madonna to appear in her music video for “God Control,” directed by Jonas Åkerlund. Samuel received honorable mention in the 2025 LA Music Center Spotlight for Classical Voice.

As a composer, Siskind was commissioned by Suzi Digby OBE of The Golden Bridge, for whom he created “Out From the Deep,” which went on to win him the 2024 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Award. Choral Arts Initiative (CAI) opened their 13th season with his choral cycle Release, which had been named a 2023 finalist for the same award.

Samuel’s debut compositional album Awake was given 5 out of 5 stars by Fanfare magazine, which praised his work as “remarkable choral, vocal and piano music.” The album features a collection of Siskind’s vocal works performed by New York’s acclaimed Fourth Wall Ensemble, conducted by Sir Georg Solti Award winner Christopher Allen, and GRAMMY®-nominated baritone Johnathan McCullough. The album concludes with a solo piano piece performed by Siskind himself.

Samuel is a two-time LA Phil Composing Fellow, where he trained under acclaimed composers Andrew Norman and the late Sarah Gibson and where his music was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic and USC Thornton Symphony. He was one of 30 composers selected worldwide by Dean and Director of Juilliard’s Music Division David Serkin-Ludwig to participate in the inaugural Juilliard Summer Composition Program. Samuel was one of ten composers chosen as a Composing Fellow at CAI’s Premier Project Festival, where he workshopped his latest choral work “The Road Not Taken,” with CAI’s 26-member professional ensemble.

His works have been heard at venues such as Carnegie Hall’s Stern Auditorium and Zankel Hall, Royce Hall at UCLA, MAPO Arts Center (Seoul), Suntory Hall (Tokyo), and the Yellowstone International Arts Festival. His piece “The Forest” was selected to open the Lindenbaum Peace Festival in an internationally televised performance from the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) with musicians from both North and South Korea.

Samuel is an incoming freshman at the USC Thornton School of Music.