Samuel Judson Crawford is currently the Performing Arts Librarian at California Institute of the Arts (CalArts). A visual artist, musician, information professional, and self-proclaimed “nerd,” Sam is a curious and active learner with a bent towards the creative. He is a classically trained singer and composer, holding a Bachelor’s degree in Vocal Music Education from East Tennessee State University as well as a Master’s degree in Music Composition and Theory from New York University’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development. As a composer, he has studied with Julia Wolfe, Morton Subotnick, Justin Dello Joio, and Ezequiel Viñao, and participated in masterclasses with Steve Reich, Louis Andriessen, Meredith Monk, David Lang, Michael Gordon, Nico Muhly, Derek Bermel, Annie Gosfield, and Paul D. Miller (DJ Spooky), among others. He has collaborated with a range of soloists and ensembles, including groups such as the New York-based Cadillac Moon Ensemble, W4 New Music Collective, and The Generous Ensemble. His music has been performed in Tennessee, New York, Sweden, and at the Bang on a Can Summer Music Festival at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts, where he served as a 2012 Composer Fellow.
Sam also holds a Master's in Library and Information Science from the University of Tennessee's School of Information Sciences. Over the last several years, he has performed a wide array of information work for a variety of federal, public, and private institutions, including the Library of Congress Music Division, the Homeland Defense and Security Information Analysis Center (HDIAC), the University School of Nashville, and the San Francisco Opera. In his most recent position (2016-2019), Sam served as the Academic Librarian (and, on two separate occasions, the Interim Director of Library Programs and Services) at Northern Marianas College (NMC), in Saipan – the largest municipality within the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI). In addition to serving the College, Sam served on the Board of Directors for the Northern Marianas Humanities Council, and was also an active member of numerous other local organizations, including Marianas Young Professionals (MYPros), the CNMI Association of Archives, Libraries, and Museums (CAALM), and the NMI Museum Board of Governors.
Currently, he maintains professional membership with the American Library Association (ALA), the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), the Association of College & Research Libraries (ACRL), the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centres (IAML), the Music Library Association (MLA), the Theatre Library Association (TLA), and the Society for Minimalist Music.