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About Sam
“Adams shows himself to be among the most interesting composers of the millennial generation.”
—Gramophone Magazine
Samuel Adams (b. 1985) is an American composer whose music weaves acoustic and digital sound into “mesmerizing” (New York Times) orchestrations.
Sought after by orchestras and contemporary ensemble alike, he has received commissions from a broad range of organizations including San Francisco Symphony, Carnegie Hall, New World Symphony, The Australian Chamber Orchestra, and Spektral Quartet, and has collaborated with performers and conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Robertson, MTT, violinists Anthony Marwood, Jennifer Koh, Karen Gomyo, and pianists Emanuel Ax, Sarah Cahill, David Fung, and Joyce Yang.
The 2024-25 season features several premieres and performances, including the world premiere of Adams’s third string quartet—commissioned by the Alma Quartet, who will tour the work throughout the Netherlands and Belgium, with its debut performance at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. To conclude his residency with the Concertgebouw, his 2020 orchestral work Variations, a co-commission with the Cincinnati Symphony and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, will receive its European premiere as part of the Zaterdagmatinee series, conducted by Karina Canellakis. A new vocal work for soprano and ensemble, co-commissioned by Oberlin Conservatory and the University of Southern California and featuring the poetry of Tracy K. Smith, Pádraig Ó Tuama, and Malachi Black, will premiere at the Aspen Music Festival in the summer of 2025. Repeat performances of recent chamber works will take place at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation in St. Louis, 92NY, the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center in New York, and the Sydney Festival as will a performance of Adams’s 2017 Chamber Concerto with Peter Oundjian and the Colorado Symphony.
Adams was Mead Composer In Residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2015 to 2018 and in the 2021-22 season was the Composer in Residence with Het Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. He has held residencies at Civitella Ranieri (Umbria, IT), Djerassi Resident Artists Program (California, USA), Ucross (Wyoming, USA), and Visby International Centre for Composers (Gotland, SE). He is a 2019 Guggenheim Fellow and lives and works in Seattle, WA.