Samantha Bennett

Hailed by the Chicago Tribune as a violinist “full of subtlety and poise,” Samantha Bennett is an active and varied performer around the globe. Bennett is a violinist in The Dallas Opera Orchestra and previously served as Principal Second Violin of the Sarasota Orchestra from 2016-2022. She was also a member of the Fort Worth Symphony and The Florida Orchestra. She performs frequently with the Fort Worth Symphony, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra and the Boston Symphony. Along with her husband, percussionist George Nickson, Bennett is the founder and Co-Artistic Director of ensembleNEWSRQ (enSRQ), a new music collective based in Sarasota, Florida. Dedicated to innovative programming and thoughtfully curated concerts, enSRQ’s 2025/26 season comprises six programs of contemporary classical chamber music in Sarasota, including numerous commissions, collaborations and world premieres. As Co-Artistic Director of enSRQ, Bennett is known for her performances of some of the most challenging contemporary repertoire. A fierce advocate of new music, Bennett has premiered works by Gunther Schuller, Toshio Hosokawa, Oliver Knussen, John Cage, George Benjamin, Augusta Read Thomas and Philip Glass. As Concertmaster of the New Haven Symphony, Bennett recorded works for “Portrait of Augusta Read Thomas” (Nimbus Records), including the world premiere recording of Augusta Read Thomas’s saxophone concerto Hemke Concerto “Prisms of Light.” As a recitalist, Bennett has performed in Boston’s Jordan Hall, London’s Wigmore Hall and Zankel Hall at Carnegie Hall. She has participated in the internationally renowned Lucerne Festival Academy, Spoleto Festival USA, the Music Academy of the West and the Tanglewood Music Festival, where she was awarded the Jules C. Reiner Violin Prize. At Tanglewood, she premiered Einojuhani Rautavaara’s ‘Lost Landscapes’ for solo violin and orchestra and led the North American premiere of George Benjamin’s award-winning opera, Written on Skin. In the summers, she is a member of the Britt Festival Orchestra and performs with the Santa Fe Opera. Born in Ames, Iowa, Bennett studied with Almita and Roland Vamos in Chicago before completing her bachelor’s and master’s degrees at the New England Conservatory in Boston, where she studied with Donald Weilerstein and Malcolm Lowe.