His experimental practice is variously concerned with ambiguous affective states such as boredom, notions of temporality in music and phenomenological aspects of musical ordering, and the continuing potential of musical notation as a site of creative exploration. Samuel’s work ranges from orchestral and chamber music for concert performance to multi-modal installation work, and has been presented by prominent artists, ensembles and institutions in Aotearoa, Asia, Europe and North America. These performers include Klangforum Wien (Austria), the Miyata-Yoshimura-Suzuki Trio (Japan), the Formalist Quartet (USA), the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Stroma (NZ), and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. He has longstanding relationships with performers including Dylan Lardelli, Mark Menzies, Stephen De Pledge, and the NZTrio.
Samuel maintains a longstanding collaborative relationship with the collective et al. Their collaborative work has been exhibited at institutions including Monash University Museum of Art (Australia), Bundanon Art Museum (Australia), and West Den Haag (The Netherlands), and is held in the Chartwell Collection at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki.
Samuel was the 2013 Mozart Fellow at the University of Otago, and a 2016 Civitella Ranieri Fellow in Umbria, Italy. He was a finalist in the 2011 SOUNZ Contemporary Award for Sillage, a work that was selected to represent New Zealand at the 2014 ISCM World New Music Days in Poland. His work has been recorded and published by Rattle Records, Atoll Records, Score and Wai-te-ata Music Press.
Samuel has been a committee member of the Composers Association of New Zealand (2006-2017), a convener and mentor at the Nelson Composers Workshop, a co-convener of the 2014 CANZ Composers Conference, and Artistic Director of new music ensemble 175 East (2011-2014). He is strongly engaged with both music and visual arts communities in Aotearoa, and participates regularly in a range of advisory and assessment panels. He is current chair of the Auckland Council Public Art Advisory Panel. Alongside these actives, Samuel produces music-related publications under his imprint Score, and is a co-editor of BLOT, a journal of music, sound, and performance.
His current research activity is focused on the late ‘number pieces’ of John Cage.