Seba Ali, piano

Acclaimed for her masterful piano technique and wide-ranging musical imagination, Egyptian Pianist Seba Ali enjoys a diverse career as a soloist, chamber musician, and teaching artist.

She has started playing the piano at the age of four and had her concert debut at the age of five. Having started performing as a soloist with the orchestras at age eleven, Seba has performed with Lynn Philharmonia, Cairo Celebration Orchestra, Bibliotheca Alexandria Chamber Orchestra, Cairo Conservatory, Cairo Symphony Ars Flores, and Redlands Symphony Orchestras. In addition, Seba maintains solo recitals and frequently performs at renowned venues including New York Public Library, Kaufmann Center, Manasterly Palace, The Staller Center For The Arts, and Historic Asolo Theatre, and her performances have been broadcast on WQXR, KUOR and Classical Variations.

Dedicated to chamber music, Seba is a winner of the Ackerman Chamber Music Competition and has been mentored by some of the greatest chamber musicians of our time, including Gilbert Kalish, Colin Carr, Carol Wincenc, Andres Cardenes, Paquito D’Rivera and the Emerson String Quartet. She is a founding member of Gadayel Duo with her husband; hornist Amr Selim with recent performances and residencies at Santa Clara University, Silicon Valley Music Festival, Lincoln Center, and Kaufman Center in New York City.

Dr. Ali holds a Bachelor of Music from Cairo Conservatory, a Professional Performance Certificate from Lynn Conservatory, a Master’s of Music in piano performance and a doctorate of musical arts from Stony Brook University. Her principal teachers include Vselod Demidov, Roberta Rust, and Christina Dahl.

In high demand as an educator, Seba serves as a piano faculty at YES Academy – American Voices, Imagine Summer Arts Camp, and Apple Hill Summer Chamber Music Workshop. She has served as the piano and chamber music faculty at the Stony Brook University undergraduate music department and pre-college division, Cairo Conservatory, and Long Island Conservatory, and has given Masterclasses and workshops across the Middle East and the United States.

Having a strong passion for teaching, Dr. Ali maintains a piano studio for fifteen years where her international student roster has gone on to win prestigious competitions and scholarships for postgraduate studies in the U.S., Asia and Europe. Her passion for education drew her to do extensive research on the teaching methods of the U.S, Europe, and Asia, collecting it into a source to other educators.

As a cultural entrepreneur, and driven by her passion through education and outreach to her community. Dr. Ali is the founder and the artistic director of Imagine Workshop and Concert Series (IWCS) based at the Lebanese American University (LAU) in Beirut, Lebanon.