Amin Amel Ebrahimi (1997) is an Iranian conductor, composer and artistic director based in the Netherlands. He founded the Brabant Chamber Orchestra while still a conservatory student. Amin collaborates regularly with Cappella Amsterdam and the Amsterdams Andalusisch Orkest. Past collaborations include the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra (Nederlands Kamerorkest), Philzuid, Holland Festival, November Music, Gaudeamus, Brabant Koor, Beethoven Orchester, Danish National Orchestra, and NOSPR.

Amin’s driving force is to deeply understand the issues at hand and make them understood by others. The focus is always on relevance: does the detail support the whole, will the form speak to the audience?  

Amin respectfully challenges performance traditions of classical works if the score does not support them. As a curator, he incorporates elements like dramaturgy, lighting, projection, and storytelling – crafting each concert as a fully realised experience. For Amin, artistic direction is an extension of composition itself.

His Persian heritage influences Amin’s classical compositions. He offers a rich blend of Middle Eastern and Western traditions to create a fresh cultural and sonic palette of melody, harmony, form and orchestration. Carefully integrating quartertones into the Western compositional system, Amin often incorporates controlled improvisation, viewing heartfelt emotion as the most personal form of expression.

In his second year of study, Amin composed He woke up in the snake’s dream for the Brabant Koor. The national newspaper NRC praised it as ‘fascinating, with the humming choir as the highlight’. In the same year, the new music festival Gaudeamus commissioned and presented Haft Shahr, a song cycle for baritone and piano based on Rumi’s poetry. In the same year Amin was a nominated and finalist for the Educational Excellence Award at ECHO.

After revisiting Brabant Koor as a composer and conductor, Amin graduated cum laude in 2022 from the Music and Performing Arts Tilburg. His teachers and mentors included Anthony Fiumara, Aart Strootman, Antony Hermus, Sander Teepen, and Louis Buskens. Simultaneously, the Holland Festival invited him to work with Cappella Amsterdam, leading to recurring roles as guest musical director, with plans for a guest artistic directorship.

Amin’s reputation for excellence has led to ongoing collaborations and increased responsibilities in professional and community projects. His partners value his balanced approach – attentive to musical rehearsal and creative presentation concepts. Collaborations have brought Amin to the stages of Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Muziekgebouw Eindhoven, TivoliVredenburg, Muziekgebouw aan ’t IJ, and Philharmonie de Paris, among others.

In 2023, Amin was awarded the prestigious MusicHub Brabant Fellowship to further his career as a conductor, composer, and artistic director.