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Dr. Samuel Torjman Thomas is the Director of Musical Arts for the Sephardic Community Center. He oversees all music programming for Encore and for Encore Outreach. In addition to his leadership at the Center, he teaches ethnomusicology and Sephardic Studies at City University of New York (Hunter College and John Jay College), is a multi-instrumentalist (saxophone, oud, nay), vocalist (Hebrew, Arabic, Spanish), and founder and artistic director of ASEFA and the New York Andalus Ensemble. He is also a faculty member for both the ALEPH and Academy of Jewish Religion Cantorial Programs.

Dr. Torjman Thomas researches and performs musics from North Africa, the Middle East, and Global Jazz. His scholarship centers on music of the Middle East and North Africa, worldwide Jewish musics, and jazz-based traditions. He is a frequent guest speaker, ḥazzan, and facilitator in ecumenical spaces, cultural institutions, and music and spiritual retreats worldwide.