Samuel Zagnit
Bass
Samuel Zagnit, a native New Yorker, is a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Orin O’Brien and David Grossman. He currently pursues his graduate studies at the Yale School of Music, with Don Palma.
An avid chamber musician, Sam attended The Bowdoin Music Festival, Decoda Skidmore Chamber Music Institute, Texas Music Festival, and in August of 2018, the Lucerne Music Festival. Sam is part of the duo confluss, with Amber Evans, soprano: a new chamber ensemble committed to the performance of repertoire for their instrumentation and other unconventional setups.
At MSM, Sam played with Tactus, an ensemble part of the Contemporary Performance Program.
As their bassist, Sam was able to play contemporary music as an undergraduate in this graduate program for four years, including Carter’s A Mirror on Which to Dwell, and Figment III. In March 2019, he served as acting associate principal for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, led by Mattias Pintscher, and is thrilled to be back, accompanying his former teacher, David Grossman, in the west coast premiere of Dark with Excessive Bright, by Missy Mazolli.
Sam is former principal bassist of the award-winning New York Youth Symphony and recently graduated from their composition program. As a composer, he has received the Ira Gershwin ASCAP award for his promise and talent as a composer, and recently premiered the first iteration of catalogues.
