Sam Pluta - Technical Director/Electronics
Sam Pluta is a composer and electronic performer living in New York City. His work in recent years has focused on the laptop as an instrument, and he has performed his solo laptop works in the United States and Europe. As an ensemble player, as well as performing with the Wet Ink, Sam plays in Glissando Bin Laden, a five-piece improvising band with Caroline Malonee (violin), Jim Altieri (violin), Meighan Stoops (Bass Clarinet), and Alex Ness (laptop). He is also a member of analog synth/laptop duo exlusiveOr, a group he formed in 2007 with Jeff Snyder.
As a composer, Sam's music has been commission and performed by groups and performers such as Wet Ink, Dave Eggar, ICE, Prism Quartet, RIOT, Teresa McCollough, and Ha-Yang Kim. His music ranges from purely acoustic chamber music to solo works for laptop, works for small and large ensemble with electronics to installation, solo virtuosic pieces to works for 15 laptops.
As well as being a performer and composer, Sam is also a devoted teacher. He has been a faculty member at The Walden School Young Musicians Program, where he is Computer Music Coordinator, for eight summers. Recently, he helped pioneer a course in computer science for young musicians at the Courant Institute at NYU. Sam is a Doctoral candidate at Columbia University where he teaches undergraduate courses and studies composition with George Lewis.
