Ashkan Behzadi

Ashkan Behzadi is an Iranian-Canadian composer residing in Chicago. He earned his DMA in composition at Columbia University where he studied with Fred Lerdahl, George Lewis, and Georg Friedrich Haas. Prior to this, he graduated from McGill University where he finished his bachelor’s degree in composition and music theory. At McGill, he studied composition with Chris Paul Harman, Brian Cherney, and Philippe Leroux. 

Ashkan also has a bachelor's degree in architecture from Tehran University, where he took composition and music theory lessons with Alireza Mashayekhi.

Ashkan’s music has been commissioned and performed by various international ensembles, including TAK Ensemble, Oerknal Ensemble, JACK Quartet, Ensemble Alternance, ensemble unitedberlin, EXAUDI Vocal Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, Talea Ensemble and Le Nouvel Ensemble Moderne (NEM), among others. His compositions are featured at international festivals and concert series as ACIMC Contemporary Music Festival in Paris, Dialoge Festival at Stiftung Mozarteum Salzburg, Rondo Dance Festival 2017 in Milan, Manifeste 2014 at ircam – Centre Pompidou, CIRMMT new music series in Quebec and the New Wave festival in Toronto. His music also has won numerous competitions, including Graham Sommer Second Prize, the Prix de Composition at Fontainebleau, and a number of SOCAN Foundation awards.

For the 2019–2020 academic year, Ashkan Behzadi has joined the Department of Music of the University of Chicago as a Postdoctoral Researcher in the Center. He currently teaches at Columbia University in the music department and assumed a position in the composition faculty at Manhattan School of Music from September 2023 onward.