Sam Weiss is an experienced, intuitive, young and highly professional musician and rising film composer.Â
He holds an Honours Degree in Music (Film Composition) from UNSW, where he studied under some of Sydney?s top composers in Dr John Peterson, Nicholas Vines, Andrew Scott, Alister Spence and Sandy Evans.
Sam is currently studying a Masters of Arts: Screen (Music) at Australia's foremost screen institution AFTRS. Sam has also been accepted into the world-renowned Screen Scoring program at USC Thornton School of Music, California for 2021.Â
Sam is an up-and-coming film and television composer with numerous credits to his name, including Pockets of Hope (Feature Documentary, 2015) and thriller Indigo Lake (Feature Film, 2017), among many other short films and screen projects. Sam launched his composing career aged 20 at the same time as completing his Bachelor of Music and Bachelor of Commerce degrees, composing for the screen while at the same time completing his studies.
Sam is a member of the Australian Guild of Screen Composers and the Music Arrangers' Guild of Australia.
Sam has won critical acclaim for his film scores at film festivals around the world including in Italy (Winner - Best Original Score, Rome Elephant Film Awards) and the Netherlands (Nominee - Best Original Score, Amsterdam International Filmmakers Festival).
Sam is currently engaged as the 2020 Composing Fellow for the Sydney Children's Choir (Gondwana Voices), for whom he has been commissioned to write 6 choral works.Â
Sam is also a conductor of the Central Synagogue Choir, for which he has written and arranged compositions since his employment in 2014.Â
As a performer, Sam is a multi-instrumentalist and has been performing since age 6 on the piano and saxophone. In recent years, he has established himself as one of Sydney?s most in-demand saxophonists with over 100 performances in each of the past 3 years. He has also performed in Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia.
Sam has been the JBD's Musical Director since 2016, for which he has overseen and curated performances for a range of Australia's top musical talent including Ilan Kidron (Potbelleez), top bassist Jonathan Zwartz, Edouard Bronson (Monsseiur Camambert), renowned jazz pianist Leonie Cohen and cellist Rosemary Quinn (Brandenburg Orchestra). Sam also conducted a male choir, which performed one of his arrangements in 8-part harmony. In this role, Sam has also participated in cross-cultural projects including with the Aboriginal and Jewish communities (which featured a world-first saxophone and didgeridoo rendition of 'Es Brent') and the Hindu community, among others.Â