Tariq Al-Sabir

Prolific composer, vocalist, musical director, and multi-disciplinary artist Tariq al-Sabir writes and performs in a wide variety of idioms from soul and pop to classical and musical theater.A native of Baltimore, Maryland, al-Sabir began composing music while still in elementary school, encouraged by a mother who exposed him and his siblings to "everything." He wrote songs and sang incessantly throughout grade school, at first inspired by rap music, and later by soul and pop (he claimed Stevie Wonder as his favorite artist). While still in middle school, his talent and creativity won him a scholarship to study at Johns Hopkins' Peabody Institute. There he joined the Booker T. Washington Boys' Choir, and as a result, while still in his early teens, he was chosen to perform, as part of the group DoMaJe, "Way Down in the Hole," the theme song of the fourth season of The Wire, the popular HBO crime drama series set in Baltimore. He was later accepted into the prestigious Baltimore High School for the Arts, where he formed a gospel group which performed around town, and he also wrote a musical, Another Man's Treasure, which won him the 2006 Centerstage Young Playwrights Award. He went on to major in Voice at the Peabody Institute, and later became an instructor there. Among al-Sabir's large-scale compositions was the "social media song cycle" #Unwanted, premiered in 2019 at the Shed in N.Y.C. That year he sang in the L.A. Philharmonic's 2019 production of Meredith Monk's opera Atlas. He appeared as a featured soloist in both orchestral and jazz settings, and performed with a wide variety of artists ranging from classical violinist Hilary Hahn to '80s pop-soul superstar Billy Ocean to Christian singer Sandi Patty. His own solo recorded output began in 2024 with the EP Unlike Yesterday Today I'm Ready, produced by Dev Hynes, which showcased his unique "experimental soul" sound combining various Black music traditions with cutting-edge electronic production.
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