Prolific composer/trumpeter Samantha Boshnack is based in Seattle, where she leads three ensembles of her own music, as well as performs and composes with countless other bands, projects, and recordings. Her music can be heard with the B’shnorkestra – a 14-piece alternative chamber orchestra, and the Sam Boshnack Quintet, which features piano, clarinets, trumpet, bass & drums. In March 2014, the Sam Boshnack Quintet released the critically-claimed “Exploding Syndrome.” In 2013, B’shnorkestra released “Go To Orange” on Present Sounds Recordings. In 2012, she was a featured artist in the Frye Art Museum’s Moment Magnitude exhibit (showcasing exceptional artistic practice in Seattle), one of only 16 artists selected for an Artist Trust Fellowship, and was named Emerging Artist by Earshot Jazz. Since 2004, Boshnack has co-led the modern jazz group Reptet, releasing three full-length records primarily comprised of her originals– “Do This!” (2006), “Chicken or Beef?” (2008), “AT THE CABIN”(2011), and one single on vinyl – “Agendacide” (2009). Boshnack has toured Europe, Africa, Asia, Canada, and extensively in the US. These tours have included international festivals, colleges, grade schools, concerts, theaters, studio, and club performances. Boshnack also composes for the Cuban-inspired band, Picoso. She is a contributing composer to two leading modern big bands – WACO (Washington Composers Orchestra, formally the New York Composers Orchestra featuring Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, and Tom Varner) and Seattle Jazz Composer Ensemble, appearing on their 2012 release Composers Vol. 1. In 2013 she was commissioned by the Seattle Rock Orchestra to appear on a concert of new works.
Boshnack earned a BA in Music Composition from Bard College in 2003. While at Bard, she studied classical composition with Joan Tower and jazz composition with Erica Lindsay. She has receive support and commissioning funds from New Music USA, Meet The Composer, 4Culture, Artist Trust, Jack Straw Productions, ASCAPlus, Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs, New York Foundation of the Arts, and Earshot Jazz.
Boshnack was also accepted and attended, through a national call, the Jazz Composers Orchestra Institute 2012 presented by The Center for Jazz Studies at Columbia University and American Composers Orchestra in cooperation with The UCLA Herb Alpert School of Music. In February 2014, she attended an Atlantic Center for the Arts Master Artist-in-Residence Program with Marilyn Crispell.
She has performed or recorded with artists such as Butch Morris, Eyvind Kang, Oliver Lake, Los Campesinos, Bobby Previte, David Byrne, Terry Riley, Stuart Dempster, Skerik, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, Jherek Bischoff, Tom Varner, Sumi Tonooka, Jessica Lurie, Amy Denio, Joshua Kohl, Paul Kikuchi, Evan Flory Barnes, Paul Rucker, Orkestar Zirkonium, among others.
