Mohammed Fairouz

Mohammed Fairouz (born November 1, 1985) is an American composer.

He is one of the most frequently performed composers of his generation and has been described as an important new artistic voice.

Fairouz began composing at an early age and studied at the New England Conservatory of Music and the Curtis Institute of Music. His teachers included Gunther Schuller, Halim El-Dabh, and John Heiss.

Fairouz lives in New York City.

Fairouz says that he first set the poem "The True Knowledge" by Oscar Wilde to music at the age of 7 and has gone on to write hundreds of art songs and over a dozen song cycles. In Poets & Writers Magazine, he described himself as being obsessed with text.

Three Fragments of Ibn Khafājah was commissioned by the Cygnus Ensemble and sets poetry by Arab Andalucian poet Ibn Khafaja.

Musicians for Harmony commissioned the song cycle Furia for baritone Randall Scarlata together with the Imani Winds and the Borromeo String Quartet and sets Western texts about the Middle East.

Jeder Mensch, was written for Kate Lindsey with texts set from the diaries of Alma Mahler. Lindsey is also the soloist in a 2014 recording of Fairouz's 2012 cycle, Audenesque (in memory of W. B. Yeats), with the LPR Ensemble conducted by Evan Rogister, released in 2015 on the Deutsche Grammophon label (catalog no. B0022417). The disc also features Fairouz's 2013 instrumental work, Sadat.

Fairouz has also collaborated extensively with living poets. Bonsai Journal, on texts by Judson Evans, was released on Albany Records.

Fairouz's theatrical song cycle, written with Wayne Koestenbaum, titled Pierrot was commissioned by the Da Capo Chamber Players.

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