Leo Samama was born in Apeldoorn (The Netherlands), March 25th, 1951. He is a graduate of the University of Utrecht in musicology and studied for some years composition under Rudolf Escher. In 1976/77 he continued his doctoral studies with a Rotary Foundation Grant at UCLA in Los Angeles, California, and lectured on Dutch music in the 20th Century (a.o. at UCLA and the University of Maryland). At the same time he has studied for conductor with David Porcelijn and over the years has conducted mainly ensembles for contemporary music.

  1977-1988 Leo Samama has taught the history of music and culture (history of art, philosophy and aesthetics) at the Utrecht Conservatory. 1987-1989 he lectured on 'Musical criticism in theory and practice' at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. 1988-1992 he was at the faculty of the Musicology Department of the Utrecht University, with specialization Music of the Twentieth Century and Musical Criticism.

  1978-1984 he was a critic at De Volkskrant and 1986-1990 a correspondent of the Nieuwe Rotterdamse Courant/Handelsblad (both are leading newspapers in The Netherlands). 1988-1994 Leo Samama has been on the board of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam as the orchestra's artistic advisor; 1991-1993 he was head of the orchestra’s artistic department as a delegate of the board. During those same years Leo Samama has been on the board of several other important organizations in the musical field too, and from 1988-1993 he has been artistic adviser of the Centrum Nederlandse Muziek (an organization specialized in the promotion of Dutch music) and, 1992-1994, advisor of the broadcasting company NCRV.

  At the same time Leo Samama has been a member of many other boards active in Dutch musical life  (a.o. the Amsterdam Boekman Stichting -  the research institute of cultural and social studies -, the Combattimento Consort - an ensemble specialised in Baroque music -, the Dutch Music Council and several advisory boards to the Dutch Government). 1992-1994 Leo Samama earned his living mainly as an artist's and music consultant and as an artist's manager. 1994-2003 Leo Samama was artistic manager of the Residentie Orchestra The Hague.

  Next to these he has been artistic director of the Naarden Music Festival 1998 and guest programmer of the 2001 Dutch Music Days (a joint venture of national Dutch radio NPS, the combined radio orchestras and Muziekcentrum Vredenburg Utrecht). In may 2003 Leo Samama has been appointed the artistic manager and in march 2004 the general manager of the Nederlands Kamerkoor.

  Apart from these, Leo Samama devides his activities between the writing of music and the wri­ting on music. His musicological writings include books on the piano sonatas of Beethoven (De pianosonates van Beethoven, Utrecht 1982), on the music of Skrjabin (De verklanking van het onhoorbare, Den Haag 1986) and on contemporary Dutch Music (Zeventig jaar Nederlandse muziek, 1915‑1985, Amsterdam 1986) ‑ the first comprehensive survey on the music and musical scene in the 20th Century in The Netherlands, of which a new, enlarged edition has been published March 2006 as Nederlandse muziek in de 20-ste eeuw.

    He also contributed, among others, to books on Postmodernism, on Nietzsche, on the Dutch movement of the Eighties (Diepenbrock and others), on the history of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, on the theory and history of the music of the 20th Century (student textbooks for the Open University) and on British Music. He wrote programme notes, sleeve notes (for Philips, Decca, Chandos, etc.) and articles for the major orchestras, record companies and magazines in Holland and took care of all the articles on Dutch music for the Italian encyclopaedia Dizionaria della Musica e dei Musicisti (UTET, Torino), and many articles on Dutch opera and Dutch music in the 20th Century for The New Grove Dictionary of Opera.

  Since 1975 Leo Samama has written well over seventy-five compositions for a great diversity of ensembles, most of them commissioned by the Dutch Government and the Fund of the Creative Arts. His official 'Opus 1' is Tombeau concertant pour Frank Martin, for two violins and string orchestra, which was played all over the world by the Camerata Lysy and opened the Gstaad Summer Festival in 1975. The Tombeau concertant pour Frank Martin was recorded by the Dutch Chamber Orchestra under Anthony Ros-Marba. A record with cha­ber music has been released by Attacca Records in 1982.

    In 1988 a compact disc was released with the Monumentum pro Caecilia for harpsichord and string orchestra (Attacca Records), in 1989 a compact disc followed with the Triptico for two guitars (Donemus), in 1990 with Grand Slam for accordion (BFO), in 1996 with Memories. Alas!... for two guitars (Ottavo), in 1997 with Mirage for viola solo (NM Classics) and in 1998 with Past tense for saxophone and guitar (Erasmus). 

    Especially the Capriccio for alto saxophone and piano (opus 5, 1976), the Triptico for two guitars (opus 7, 1979), Caged Memories for english horn (or viola) and piano (opus 11, 1981), "...plane désespérément d'aile..." for violin solo (opus 20, 1983), Grand Slam for accordion (opus 28, 1986), Obsession for cello en piano (opus 40, 1991) and Toccata for carillon (opus 45, 1996) are performed regularly all over the country. Obsession for cello en piano was a commission for the Scheveningen International Music Competition 1991, which composition had a great success.

    Larger works, like the viola concerto Spleen et Idéal (opus 10, 1981), Soit que l'Abime for alto saxophone, saxophone quartet and an ensemble of twelve percussionists (opus 19, 1983), Afterthoughts for orchestra (opus 22, 1983), Monumentum pro Caecilia for harp­sichord and string orchestra (opus 23, 1984) and San­Yüeh for orchestra (opus 26, 1985) and recentlythe Clarinet Concerto (opus 74, 2005) received their first performances by major Dutch ensembles and were transmitted on radio.

    Afterthoughts was played January 1987 by the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra under its director Hartmut Haenchen, who choose this composition to be the first Dutch score he conducted with his new orchestra. In 1988 this composition was played by the Radio Symphony Orchestra of East Berlin. And Spleen et Idéal (opus 10) received its American première in October 1989 in Boston, played by Raphael Hillyer and the ensemble Alea III under Theodore Antoniou. San Yüeh is originally music for a ballet, which received well over 25 performances in the 1985/86‑season.

    Later compositions include electronic and synthesiser music for a major television series on modern architecture, plus commissions by the Dutch Government for the commemoration of the Dutch constitution (1848-1998) and by the International Jewish Music Festival for the 50th Anniversary of Israel (Clarinet Quintet, opus 51). In the late 1990s Samama wrote a.o. two song cycles on texts by Éluard (opus 54) and Verlaine (opus 56), a String Sextet (opus 55), a String Quartet (opus 59), and commemorative music at the death of Prince Claus (opus 65), the Valeriustrio (opus 73) and a Clarinet Concerto (opus 74). Several new compact discs have been released, among which those with his piano music and his chamber music has been widely acclaimed.

January 2005