DR SAMUEL COTTELL- PIANO, THEORY, COMPOSITION
Dr Samuel Cottell is a complete musician, a pianist (classical and jazz), composer, arranger, orchestrator, music director, and conductor. A professional musician for over 20 years, Samuel has worked in the symphonic world, classical, jazz, musical theater, and beyond. Samuel is a dynamic and engaging performer who is in high demand due to his ability to play and sight read anything. Following in the footsteps of his idols, Tommy Tycho, Bernard Walz, Peter Nero, and Andre Previn, Samuel plays everything from Beethoven to Boogie-Woogie, and is highly skilled at bringing classical and popular music together to delight and entertain audiences through his engaging performances and concerts.
Samuel studied music at Sydney University and the Conservatorium of Music. He holds a PhD on the life and music of Tommy Tycho, and is currently writing Tycho’s official biographySamuel studied the Equal Interval System of Composition (EIS) with Emmy-award winning composer Glenn Jordan. He has studied classical piano with Dr Brieley Cutting and Dr Christine Logan and jazz piano with Mark Berman (USA) through the Broadway Mentors Program, and has been mentored and taught conducting by Broadway Legend Eric Stern, and Australia’s premier pops pianist, Maestro Bernard Walz.
Since moving to the Highlands Samuel has become one of the most in-demand musicians and educators in the region. He is the music director and pianist for the Vocal Muster, the pianist for the Southern Highlands Big Band and first call accompanist for singers and instrumentalists in the area. He teaches UNE Bachelor of Music students through Hume Con. Samuel has also been an audition pianist for Highlands Theatre Group Night of Broadway and co-music director for their 2024 Christmas Carols. He has performed at Tulip Time and the Festival of Lights in Corbett Gardens. He has recently founded the Highlands Pops Orchestra, the first professional orchestra in the Highlands to foster high standards of performance and provide employment for talented local musicians. Their first concert will be in 2025 at the Bowral Memorial Hall.
Prior to moving to the Highlands Samuel was a lecturer and tutor within the Sydney University music department (where he taught harmony, music history, performance, film music, journalism and contemporary music). He was also a sessional lecturer and unit coordinator for arranging and orchestration at Western Sydney University. He is a published scholar with an entry in the Grove Dictionary of Music, and a book chapter of the concert music of Bernard Herrmann in the Routledge publication Double Lives: Film Composers in the Concert Hall. Samuel has appeared on ABC radio, and is currently advisor to the Tommy Tycho Trust, and historical consultant and music curator for a forthcoming documentary.
Samuel has a wide range of students, all of whom are good musicians. Many of his students have been accepted into the Talent Development Project (TDP), the Sydney Conservatorium, the University of NSW, and other programs. He currently teaches intermediate students to university students in the areas of classical and jazz piano, theory, harmony, arranging, orchestration, and music history. He has a number of HSC students and several have been nominated for Encore in the areas of performance and musicology.