Samawatie was born in Braunschweig in 1976 as the daughter of Iranian immigrants. She has been living in Berlin since 1995. She studied European classical music with a focus on percussion and piano at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hanover, followed by studying jazz singing at the Universität der Künste in Berlin.In 2002 Samawatie founded the quartet Cyminology together with the pianist Benedikt Jahnel. Their compositions combine Persian poetry by the poets Rumi, Hafis, Omar Chayyam and Forough Farrokhzad (1934-1967) with contemporary chamber music and free improvisations. Cyminology has given numerous concerts in Egypt, Japan, Austria, Switzerland, Syria, Turkey and the United States. Since 2010, Samawatie has been involved in projects of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Education Program. In 2013, together with Ketan Bhatti, she founded the orchestra “Divan of the Continents” with 25 musicians of diverse backgrounds in classical, traditional, electronic and jazz music. In 2018 the orchestra has changed its name to Trickster Orchestra.
