Samora Pinderhughes is a multidisciplinary artist, composer, pianist/vocalist and filmmaker known for striking vulnerability and carefully crafted, radically honest art. He is also known for using his art to examine sociopolitical issues and fight for change. His rhizomatic practice as it stands today broadly encompasses sound, performance, installation, sculpture, and social practice. His artwork is renowned for its emotionality, its honesty about difficult and complex topics, and its careful details in word, image and sound.
Pinderhughes is the first-ever Art for Justice + Soros Justice Fellow and a recipient of Chamber Music America’s 2020 Visionary Award. He has also been designated as a Creative Capital awardee, a United States Artists Fellow, and a Sundance Composers Lab fellow. He was the 2025 MoMA Adobe Creative Resident and was awarded the “Spark of Change” Award from APAP in 2026.
Pinderhughes is a graduate of The Juilliard School and is currently working on his Ph.D. at Harvard University in the Creative Practice and Critical Inquiry program under the direction of Vijay Iyer.
Pinderhughes is also the Artistic & Executive Director of The Healing Project, a community arts organization that creates narrative change and collective healing in partnership with individuals impacted by structural violence to build a world based around healing rather than punishment.
His albums include The Transformations Suite, GRIEF, Venus Smiles Not in the House of Tears, and Black Spring. The short film for his song “Process,” directed with Christian Padron, won 2021’s Best Experimental Film award at Blackstar Film Festival. His solo exhibitions include GRIEF at the Kitchen (2023) and Call and Response at the Museum of Modern Art (2026).
Pinderhughes has collaborated with many artists across boundaries and scenes, including Herbie Hancock, Glenn Ligon, Sara Bareilles, Simone Leigh, Daveed Diggs, Kyle Abraham, Titus Kaphar, and Lalah Hathaway. He is featured as a composer, lyricist, vocalist, and pianist on the albums August Greene and Let Love with Common, Robert Glasper, and Karriem Riggins. He has toured internationally with artists including Branford Marsalis, Chief Adjuah, Jose James, and Emily King, and has been commissioned by institutions including Carnegie Hall and the Apollo Theater. He was also the composer for two Emmy-winning documentary films, Going to Mars and The Strike.