Sam Spear is a woodwind instrumentalist, composer, and music educator based in Boston, MA. As a performer, she is at home in a variety of musical settings including swinging quintets, modern jazz orchestras, and chamber ensembles. In addition to her own group, she regularly performs with the Imagine Orchestra directed by Bill Banfield, the Michelle Tucker Quintet, the Mad Monkfish Orchestra directed by Peter Kenagy, and the New England Jazz Collaborative, among others.
She also leads an active life as a composer and arranger with works being performed by the Portland Jazz Composers Ensemble, Imagine Orchestra, the New England Jazz Collaborative, Berklee Concert Jazz Orchestra, among others. She writes works for a variety of instrumentations, styles, and experience levels with nearly 100 of her charts available on her sheet music store.
Spear is a professor at Berklee College of Music where she teaches in the Contemporary Writing and Production Department and Five-Week Summer Performance Program. She is a jazz studies faculty member in New England Conservatory’s preparatory division and an affiliate artist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Spear has experience teaching students from elementary through undergraduate levels in topics including music theory, ear training, improvisation, and arranging, as well as private instruction and ensemble coaching.
Spear holds a Master of Music in jazz saxophone performance from New England Conservatory and a Bachelor of Music in saxophone performance and jazz composition from Berklee College of Music, where she attended on a Presidential Scholarship.
Sam Spear Music 