Sam is a New York City based double bassist.

A versatile bassist, composer, and educator, Sam Zagnit is a New-York-based musician who enjoys a multifaceted career. Performing and composing contemporary music make up a large part of Sam’s career, and he is dedicated to performing works by living composers and creating a more inclusive environment in every musical context. As a composer, his work focuses on self-reflection as a way to deepen connections and build intimacy with his audience and fellow musicians on stage. Sam has worked and studied with many exemplary musicians from many generations, including John Adams, Marin Alsop, Orin O’Brien, Sarah Kirkland Snider, Lucy Shelton, Jessie Montgomery, and Seth Parker Woods, and David Grossman. Sam is part of the duo confluss, with soprano Amber Evans, an up-and-coming chamber ensemble committed to the exploration of their unique timbre and sound through performing original compositions for their ensemble, some by Sam himself. Since 2019, Sam has served as Acting Associate Principal Bass with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, where he plays alongside his former teacher, David Grossman. In the fall, Sam will join the bass section in the Virginia Symphony Orchestra. As an educator, Sam is a teaching artist for the Harmony Program in NYC, and leads workshops and residencies with the arts education program, LEAP. Sam is a graduate of the Yale School of Music, where he studied with Don Palma, and a recent graduate of the Performer/Composer MM at the New School. Sam is co-founder and administrator for Bass Players for Black Composers, a collective of bassists, composers, and patrons devoted to expanding the solo bass repertoire with works by Black composers.