Sam lives in Seattle, WA, with his wife Kimberly and their fur family that currently includes two dogs and three cats.
He is a native of central Alabama, growing up in the city of Alabaster. Upon completing high school he attended the University of Alabama (in Tuscaloosa), where he earned a Bachelor of Music degree in Composition.
Following a couple of years living in Destin, FL, Sam returned to school and completed a Master of Music degree in Composition at the University of Florida (in Gainesville). Sam later started PhD study at the State University of New York at Buffalo, but chose to return to Florida for family reasons following the death of his mother.
After completing his PhD in Music Composition (including cognate studies in Electrical Engineering) at the University of Florida, Sam spent the following academic year (2005-06) as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Louisiana in Lafayette.
The following academic year, Sam started as Assistant Professor of Music at Rocky Mountain College in Billings, MT, where he earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor in 2011.
In 2014, Sam moved to Seattle, WA, and pivoted his career into technology. He taught introductory and intermediate software development at an industry-leading code academy (Code Fellows) for four years before joining Microsoft as a software development engineer. Currently, Sam is exploring future opportunities that overlap the education and technology realms.
Composer bio
Samuel J. Hamm, Jr. is a composer of acoustic, electroacoustic, and mixed-media music within a variety of genres including concert music, theatre, dance, and film. Sam completed a PhD in Music Composition at the University of Florida, where his dissertation advisor was James Paul Sain. Sam also holds a BM in Composition from the University of Alabama and a MM in Composition from the University of Florida. In addition, Sam has studied composition with Cort Lippe at the University of Buffalo.
Assorted other hobbies, etc.
- Cooking
- Weather
- Ham radio