Sam was village artist in residence and village musician his wonderful guitar. Sam is a composer/songwriter, producer, multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and artist from Evanston, Illinois. He graduated summa cum laude and Pi Kappa Lamda from the Lawrence University Conservatory of Music with a self-designed major in Contemporary Improvisation. For his big band piece, Treelight, Sam earned the award of Outstanding Original Composition for Large Ensemble in the Undergraduate Category from Downbeat Magazine and was also awarded the Pi Kappa Lamda Jazz Composition Award.