Samer Fanek Biography

Samer Fanek - Biography

www.samerfanek.com


Samer Fanek (Arabic: سامر الفانك) is an award-winning Polish-Jordanian pianist, keyboardist, composer and producer of contemporary instrumental music. His debut album, “Wishful Thinking”, charted nationally at #12 on the US New Age Billboard charts and #1 on three Amazon.com charts. It is also receiving significant worldwide radio airplay, charting internationally at #2 on the Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) Top 100 Radio Airplay chart.

The album won a silver medal in the Global Music Awards, received a nomination in the 2016 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA), and recently made the 59th Grammy® Awards first-round ballot in the Best New Age Album category.

Born on December 11, 1986 in Amman, Jordan and currently residing in the United States, his passion for music began early on and it has stayed with him ever since. In his teenage years, Samer taught himself how to play his favorite songs by ear on the piano. It wasn't long before he discovered music production software which granted him the opportunity to experiment with a multitude of instrument sounds and record music with them. Samer was then able to create and arrange songs without requiring to learn sheet music.

Later on, he was able to fully recreate instrumental arrangements of his favorite songs by ear and eventually went on to compose his own music.
After finishing high school, Samer went to pursue a computer science degree in college and graduate school. Following college, he spent five years working as a software developer during the day and making instrumental music at night and on weekends. He eventually left his software developer job in late 2015 to dedicate himself entirely to realizing a long time music dream.
Samer has a dream to create powerful, melodic and dramatic instrumental music that tells a story and has an enduring emotional impact. He also aspires to take his music from his bedroom studio to the world stage and perform it with talented musicians and orchestras throughout the globe.

Both self-taught and devoted to his craft, Samer's compositions blend the piano and orchestral instruments with the more contemporary, including synthesizers and occasional rock and ethnic instruments. He cites Yanni and Nobuo Uematsu as his primary music influences, although his instrumental compositions sometimes overlap with the progressive rock and progressive metal genres, inspired by the likes of Muse and Dream Theater.

On July 22, 2016 Samer released his debut album, “Wishful Thinking”, featuring thirteen of his original instrumental music compositions which he composed, performed and produced in his bedroom studio. Due to not being able to afford hiring a real orchestra for the album, Samer used his keyboard and virtual instrument libraries to individually compose and perform all the instrument parts (such as violins, guitars, horns, flutes, and percussion) on Wishful Thinking. He used instruments from over 50 different virtual instrument libraries and synthesizer patches to create the album.

Wishful Thinking received glowing reviews and debuted nationally at #12 on the US New Age Billboard charts and #6 on the iTunes New Age Music charts. It has also climbed to #1 on the Amazon.com Best Sellers in New Age, Hot New Releases in New Age and Movers and Shakers charts.

The album already won a silver medal in the Global Music Awards for best album and creativity/originality. It was also nominated for the 2016 Hollywood Music in Media Awards (HMMA) in the Contemporary Classical/Instrumental category and recently made the 59th Grammy® Awards first-round ballot in the Best New Age Album category.
Wishful Thinking can be regularly heard on numerous FM and internet radio stations in the United States and internationally. On September 2016, the album reached #2 on the Zone Music Reporter (ZMR) Top 100 Radio Airplay chart, the monthly aggregate chart which tracks worldwide radio airplay of albums in the new age, world music, and instrumental music genres.

During his free time, Samer enjoys arranging and performing covers of his favorite songs and posting them on his YouTube channel. To date, his YouTube videos have received 3 million global views.