As Deputy Director of Flushing Town Hall since 2012, Sami has led and supervised all areas of this organization’s operations, programming, and mission, both as a key advisor and support for the Executive & Artistic Director and the Board of Directors, and as a leader of staff and key initiatives. He raised over $15 million in funding for capital improvements to the historic landmark facility, and more than $8 million in discretionary and programmatic support from the New York City Council and New York City Department of Cultural Affairs. He oversaw the updating and revision of all of Flushing Town Hall’s institutional and legal documentation. He stewarded the creation of the Arts Services department and helped to conceptualize the Queens Cultural Mapping initiative. 

As an advocate for arts funding, immigrant arts, and cultural equity in New York, he has co-led numerous coalitions including the Latinx Arts Consortium of New York (LXNY), the Cultural Equity Coalition of New York (CECNY), and the People’s Cultural Plan. 

A Harvard Graduate and Fulbright Fellow, Sami previously served as Director of the Queens Community Arts Fund at the Queens Council on the Arts, re-granting monies from the New York State Council on the Arts, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, and corporate donors, to hundreds of artists and arts organizations throughout Queens. 

One of the leading Arab violinists in the US, as well as a vocalist, Sami Abu Shumays is internationally known as a master of the maqam system. He is co-author of the acclaimed book Inside Arabic Music (Oxford University Press 2019), creator of the YouTube series "Maqam Lessons," and co-founder and director of the NYC-based Arabic music and dance ensemble Zikrayat. In 2024 he was awarded one of 25 Taproot fellowships nationally for folk artists rooted in communities, by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts. He is an advisory board member of Brooklyn Maqam, the organization promoting the largest number of Arabic music events in NYC.