Music Director Bahman Saless

Bahman Saless

Music Director

Bahman Saless started his dual career as composer and physicist during his teen years in England. After obtaining his A-level and O-level certificates in music, mathematics, and physics, Dr. Saless immigrated to the United States in 1977.

He received his BS in physics from Michigan State University in 1981, while studying violin at the same time. He then pursued a career as a physicist, obtaining his doctorate in theoretical physics from the University of Colorado in 1987.

In 1989, after having served as a physics lecturer at the Colorado School of Mines and as a research scientist for NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Dr. Saless moved to Los Angeles to continue his dual ambitions by working as a physicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena and enrolling in film scoring studies at UCLA. In 1990, Dr. Saless’s work for guitar trio, Mexican Moonlight, won the Pacific Composers’ Forum competition. After completing his studies at UCLA in 1991, Dr. Saless worked as a composer for film trailers and teasers as well as for various nature documentaries in collaboration with Academy Award Nominee Dave MacGowen.

After moving back to Boulder in 1994, Dr. Saless further pursued his passions as composer and became adjunct professor of physics at the University of Colorado. In subsequent years Dr. Saless has been active in many endeavors, including founding a successful Internet company in Boulder and performing some of his own works with local musicians as well as with Hollywood orchestras.

Since his return to Boulder, Bahman has sensed a distinct cultural gap in the musical life of this city—a gap he believes can be filled only with orchestral chamber music. After taking the podium with numerous ensembles such as the New England Youth Symphony, the Timberline Symphony Orchestra, the Zlin Philharmonic, the Astoria Symphony, and the Martinu Philharmonic Orchestra, he is confident that he and the Boulder Chamber Orchestra have something unique to offer the community: orchestral chamber music produced by the community, for the community, and for the love of music.