SAM KELDER, VIOLA

Sam Kelder is an unswerving proponent of chamber music, orchestral projects, multimedia presentations, and music education. Kelder’s multifaceted career spans the music of the Baroque era to fresh ink of contemporary composer-performer collaborations.

Described as “dynamic and committed” by the Boston Globe, Sam performs regularly in New England with ensembles A Far Cry, Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Guerilla Opera, Callithumpian Consort, Sound Icon, and various regional symphony orchestras including Cape Cod Symphony, Atlantic Symphony, Phoenix Orchestra Reborn, and the New Bedford Symphony. Kelder recently joined the Boston based string trio Sound Energy, an ensemble dedicated to searching for ways to push the traditional violin-viola-cello combination to represent the bold and daring voices of 20th- & 21st-century composers.

In addition to local projects, he has also performed as the featured artist at Third Practice Electroacoustic Festival and as soloist at New York City Electroacoustic Music Festival. Beginning his violin studies at 6 years of age in Houston, Texas, Sam grew up with an inquisitive mind for expression and collaboration. Sam holds a B.M. from the University of Houston, M.M. from Mannes the New School for Music, and graduated May 2017 from doctoral studies at Boston University as teaching assistant to Michelle LaCourse. Other major teachers and influences include Wayne Brooks, Karen Dreyfus, Kyung Sun Lee, Laurie Smukler, and Bayla Keyes.

Sam can be heard on Not Art Records and is an artist member of Music for Food, a musician-led initiative to fight hunger in our home communities.