Born in 1995 in Castrignano de' Greci, a town in the Grecìa Salentina area of Puglia, Samuel Mele studied Ethnomusicology at the Tito Schipa Conservatory in Lecce, graduating with highest honors. He is an author, composer, and performer on the oud, ney, guitar, and other string instruments from the Mediterranean and the Middle East.
After a long period of self-taught study in music theory, writing and composition techniques, and string instruments, he began studying with some of the most prominent teachers of modal music, including Ross Daly, Kelly Thoma, Yasamine Shahosseini, Peppe Frana, Christos Barbas, and Lamia Yared. He traveled extensively between Italy and Greece, particularly through the Labyrinth Musical Workshop programs in Crete, where he discovered his passion for the classical music traditions of the Mediterranean and for modal composition. In February 2024, through the Culture Moves Europe initiative and the Goethe-Institut, he took part in an artistic residency involving collaboration with several of the artists mentioned above.
Alongside his musical research, he has developed a strong inclination toward inner and philosophical inquiry, which emerged when, at the age of 20, he encountered the International School of Self Awareness and its founder Patrizio Paoletti. Through this experience, he continues to explore himself, his inner world, and the world around him with ever-growing depth — a depth that profoundly permeates his music.
