James Madison University

Assistant Professor, Bass

An omnivorous musician, Sam Suggs was recently named New Artist of the Month by Musical America and earned the grand prize at the 2015 International Society of Bassists Solo Competition performing many of his own compositions.

As a collaborative bassist, he has performed at Chamber Music Northwest, Yellow Barn, Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center, his jazz/fusion trio Triplepoint has toured in West Africa and Northern Europe, and his band Foundry was named a laureate winner in the inaugural M-Prize Competition. Suggs recently served as principal bass of the Oregon Bach Festival Berwick Academy for Historical Performance and earned honors in music theory and cognition from Northwestern University while working as the youngest principal bass of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago.

Currently Assistant Professor of Bass at James Madison University, Suggs received a Presser Foundation Award towards his doctoral studies at Yale University and, among many incredible mentors, he has worked with Don Palma, Peter Lloyd, Jeff Bradetich, DaXun Zhang, and Edgar Meyer.