Please visit www.samuelcarladams.com for more information and audio!

Samuel Adams (b. 1985) is an active composer, conductor, ­and multi-instrumentalist from the San Francisco Bay Area. He received a Bachelors from Stanford University, where he studied composition with Mark Applebaum ­and Erik Ulman and electroacoustic music with Jean-Claude Risset and Christopher Chafe at the Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA). He recently completed his Masters degree at the Yale School of Music, where he studied primarily with Martin Bresnick.

His music exists on the fringe between rigid formal structures and the impulsivity of improvisation. His works have been commissioned and performed by The Paul Dresher Ensemble, ACJW (The Academy – Carnegie, Juilliard, Weill), MATA (Music at the Anthology), Lisa Moore, Simon Carrington and the Norfolk Music Festival, Andy Meyerson, and The Stanford New Ensemble.

Sam is also an active educator. While at Yale, he co-directed the Undergraduate Jazz Ensemble, taught electronic music, multimedia, music theory, and analysis at Yale College, and assisted several private students in the New Haven community. He is currently the director of music at Achievement First Crown Heights High School.

Recent activity includes Speaker for large chorus, percussion, harmonium, strings, and electronics, The Piano Trio for Lisa Moore, Ashley Bathgate, and Karen Bentley-Pollick, a recording of the music of Astor Piazzolla for NAXOS, and a publication in Perspectives of New Music about the music of Thomas Adès.

Sam currently lives in Crown Heights, Brooklyn.