Paul Sayed, from Newburgh, NY, was a James B. Duke Scholar and Presidential Scholar at Davidson College. Sayed began his musical training at age five with piano and violin lessons. By age thirteen, Sayed adopted the guitar as his main instrument, although his parents encouraged him to continue with the violin, the nobler of the two instruments. Through the guitar, Sayed broadened his musical palette to rock and roll and jazz. Sayed continued to play the violin until his senior year in high school, when he decided that he needed to divorce the violin and explore yet another instrument. Sayed believed, however, that his parents would be upset if he quit the violin, the instrument they loved so dearly. With the help of his high school music teacher, Sayed secretly began to play the contrabass. With the contrabass, he could still attend orchestra rehearsals and pretend that he still played the violin. His parents finally discovered his conversion at his last All-County Symphony Orchestra concert in 2005. Instead of finding Sayed seated somewhere in the violin section, he stood as the third player in the bass section.

Over the years, Sayed explored several avenues of musical performance. In Newburgh, NY, Sayed regularly performed with his rock band at local clubs and venues. After gaining new independence and responsibilities by obtaining his driver's license and a luxuriously rusty '93 Toyota Tercel, Sayed realized his need to make income. In 2005, Sayed co-founded the Crawford Quartet (the house jazz band for the Crawford House Museum). Unlike rock and roll, Sayed realized that jazz was a lucrative business. With the Crawford Quartet, Sayed performed at high profile venues such as the opening of the local Barnes and Noble, the opening of Vino 100 at the Newburgh water front, on the Hudson River cruise ship River Rose, and for the campaign party of Orange County Legislator Chris Eachus. In the summer of 2008, Sayed toured the North East as the lead guitarist of an indie label techno band. At Davidson College, he performed as a contrabassist in the Davidson College Symphony Orchestra and as a guitarist in the Jazz Ensemble.

In 2009, Sayed was awarded the Wilmer Hayden Welsh Prize for his composition, A Tango in Yellow, written for violin, flute, guitar, vibraphone, and piano. Also in 2009, Sayed was inducted to the Alpha Nu Xi chapter of the National History Honor Society Phi Alpha Theta.