Sam Alvarez (they/he) is a saxophonist, composer, and interdisciplinary artist.

In all their work, Sam collects sustained sounds, layered textures, and small artifacts of beauty to explore language, coherence, feelings of loss, and assorted ways to cling to meaning. Sam composes instrumental music, exploring idiomatic and harmonic treatments of extended techniques. A devoted interpreter of contemporary music, Sam has commissioned and premiered over 25 works, and regularly performs as a soloist and chamber musician in diverse settings. Sam’s creative work sits squarely between image, sound, and language, twining together music, video, and written poetry. Sam is the Artistic Director and founding tenor saxophone chair of the Chicago-based Masso Quartet. Sam’s recent work for saxophone ensemble and video, “the tree stump is a verb,” was premiered in Chicago in March 2025, and their coming solo set, “how to speak a foreign language” (for solo saxophone, live electronics, and four-channel video, 30’), will be premiered in Geneva in June 2025.

Sam is pursuing a Composer-Performer MA at the Haute École de Musique de Genève, and holds  a BM from Northwestern University in Saxophone Performance, English Literature, and Composition. Sam’s teachers include Joshua Hyde, Taimur Sullivan, and Katharina Rosenberger.

Originally from Austin, Texas, Sam is currently based in Geneva, Switzerland.