Bio

IMG_2535 - Version 4Sam Krahn is a composer, guitarist, performer, and teacher. His works have been performed by members of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Zeitgeist New Music Ensemble, TAK Ensemble, E4TT, the Fidelio Trio, Ensemble Uusinta, Ensemble Dal Niente, Duo Gelland, Bent Duo, the Cascade Quartet, Adriana Zabala and Kelly Kuo, the Artemis Vocal Ensemble, loadbang, Strains New Music Ensemble, the Virginia Tech New Music Ensemble, the Gregorian Singers, Benjamin Cold, Bill Solomon, and many others. He has received numerous commissions to compose new works for Ed Harrison of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (Maraca Concerto), Duo Gelland (Butoh Study #1, Resistance/Resonance), Nexus Duo (Moon Forms), Bill Solomon (Cascade/Noise Generator), Great Falls Symphony (Sounds for Silent Film), Harper College (Spring Dirge), Benjamin Cold (flux-mirror), and the Anaphora Contemporary Ensemble (String Quartet No. 1). In December of 2015, his first musical comedy, An Evening with Krampus was premiered in a 5-show run at the Phoenix Theater in Minneapolis.

He participated in the 17th World Saxophone Congress and Festival, the New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival, the MATA Festival in New York City, the 2014 Source Song Festival in Minneapolis, the 2015 Root Signals Electronic Music Festival, the 46th Ball State Festival of New Music and the 70th annual Cheltenham Music Festival in England. He has participated in artist residencies in 2015 at the Millay Colony in New York and Brush Creek in Wyoming. Sam was the 2017/2018 Artist in Residence at the Paris Gibson Square Museum of Contemporary Art, where he created an interactive installation: Sound/Play. He received a grant from New Music USA for a new 35-minute work for saxophone and electronics and was a recipient of the 2017 Montana Arts Council Artist’s Innovation Award.

Sam previously taught as a faculty member at Montana State University, the University of Providence, Great Falls College – MSU, and as a Graduate Instructor at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Dr. Krahn is currently a faculty member in the music department at Green River College in Auburn, WA.

Sam is a founding member of the Minneapolis composer collective 113. He also founded the Montana Improvisers Orchestra in Great Falls, Montana, and directed the ensemble from 2016-2018.

Sam received a Ph.D. in music composition at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, studying with James Dillon. He also holds a M.Mus. in music composition from Roosevelt University where he studied with Stacy Garrop and Kyong Mee Choi, and a B.Mus. in classical guitar performance from Boston University. Sam is a classically trained and experienced guitarist. He has played in numerous rock bands, classical ensembles, improvisational groups, and as a soloist.