Samuel took the path less traveled in respect to an orchestral career. He was already quite accomplished at playing horn before finishing high school having studied with the principal hornist of the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and spending most of his free time practicing the horn. When Samuel finished high school in 1980 in Chattanooga, TN rather than go to college like most of his friends he joined the Air Force and played in the Air Force Band. That took him to positions in Shreveport, LA and Wrightstown, NJ.

After that four year stint in the Air Force Samuel was a little disillusioned about a career in music and walked away from it altogether in 1984. It didn’t take long for Samuel to start missing making music and performing and enrolled at Tennessee Technological University’s Music School in the fall of 1986. Arthur LaBar the University’s horn professor had tried to give Samuel a scholarship to that school while he was in high school. Fortunately the offer was still there six years later.

While Samuel was in the Air Force Band in New Jersey he studied extensively with Randy Gardner who was the second horn player with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Samuel knew the orchestral training would be better in Philadelphia than in Cookeville, TN. So he reestablished contact with Randy Gardner and got a scholarship to attend Temple University’s Music School after one year at Tennessee Tech.. While in Philadelphia Samuel won a position playing second horn in the Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra. Even with the scholarships and the job in Harrisburg Samuel was running short on funds and rejoined the Air Force Band again in 1988. That took him to Warner Robbins, GA for the next three years.

While at that assignment Samuel was in the only U.S. Military band that has a bagpipe band. In addition to playing horn he was involuntarily the bass drummer for the U.S. Air Force Bagpipe Band. The location in Georgia allowed Samuel to resume study with his former horn teacher Brice Andrus in the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra. He spent as much time studying and practicing as possible to get out of South Georgia. That came with winning a position in the premier Air Force Band in Washington DC in 1990. This was the highlight of Samuel’s Air Force career as the Washington Band is their very best ensemble. During his time there he occasionally played at the White House and for many foreign dignitaries. The Air Force Band took Samuel on concert tours of the entire country. Samuel has played concerts in nearly every major city in America and every state except for Alaska.

Samuel never lost site of an orchestral career and continued studying and practicing. His horn teacher during this time was Sylvia Alimena who is the second hornist with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington. During his tenure in the Air Force Band in Washington he also played in many orchestras including the Washington Chamber Symphony at the Kennedy Center, the Maryland Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Symphony Orchestra, Mid-Atlantic Chamber Orchestra and Baltimore Opera just to name a few. Samuel started auditioning for full time orchestra jobs during this time and eventually was offered a temporary job playing Assistant/Associate Principal Horn with the Rochester Philharmonic in New York in 1996 which he accepted.

When that temporary job ended in 1998 Samuel was offered the position as Principal Hornist with the Memphis Symphony Orchestra. He accepted the position and has been here since 1998. Samuel resides in Germantown with his wife Jenny Compton and their two sons Zephyr and Tasman.