Program

Four Winds (2020) by Sam Wells

Sam Wells, trumpet & interactive audiovisual electronics

SPLICE Institute will present the online video world premiere of Four Winds, performed and composed by Sam Wells. A concert length work for improvising trumpeter and interactive audiovisual electronics, Four Winds is a narrative exploration of spaces, internal and external, defined by air and breath. The visual imagery is derived from time-lapse photos and videos taken in June 2020 by Wells in the Gothic Valley of Gunnison County, CO.

This performance was recorded live on June 19, 2020.

Sam Wells is a Los Angeles-based trumpeter, composer, and improvisor who creates evocative and narrative multimedia performances. Sam has performed throughout North America and Europe, as well as in China. He is a recipient of a 2016 Jerome Fund for New Music award, and his work, stringstrung, is the winner of the 2016 Miami International Guitar Festival Composition Competition. He has performed electroacoustic works for trumpet and presented his own music at the Bang on a Can Summer Festival, Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar, Electronic Music Midwest, Electroacoustic Barn Dance, NYCEMF, N_SEME, and SEAMUS festivals. Sam and his music have also been featured by the Kansas City Electronic Music and Arts Alliance (KcEMA) and Fulcrum Point Discoveries. He has also been a guest artist/composer at universities throughout North America. Sam is a member of Arcus Collective, Kludge, and SPLICE Ensemble. Sam has performed with Contemporaneous, Metropolis Ensemble, TILT Brass, the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, and the Colorado MahlerFest Orchestra. Sam has recorded on the SEAMUS and Ravello Recordings labels. Sam is currently enrolled in the Performer-Composer DMA program at the California Institute of the Arts. He has degrees in both performance and composition at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, and graduate degrees in Trumpet Performance and Computer Music Composition at Indiana University. He is on faculty at SPLICE Institute, Molloy College, and the California Institute of the Arts. You can find Sam on social media at @sllewmas or on his website at www.samwellsmusic.com