Often mixing acoustic and electronic sounds, the music of composer Samuel Adams is shaped by such contemporary disciplines as sound design, noise, microsound, and field recording. Adams is the son of composer John Adams and is also a double bassist.

Adams was born December 30, 1985, in San Francisco, to John Adams and photographer Deborah O'Grady, who met while each was collaborating with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. He has sometimes used the name Samuel Carl Adams. Adams grew up in the Bay Area. At Stanford University, he studied double bass, composition, and electroacoustics. Later, he took composition lessons from the experimental music composer Martin Bresnick. Adams went on for a master's degree in composition at Yale University, receiving his degree in 2010. Adams's first compositions began to appear around this time, and, from the start, they featured unusual media; Tension Studies for electric guitar, percussion, and electronics appeared in 2011, and Drift and Providence for orchestra and live sound design was issued the following year. After leaving Yale, Adams moved to Brooklyn, New York, where he taught and performed in several ensembles. In 2016, he returned to California.

From 2015 to 2018, Adams was the composer-in-residence with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has also received commissions from the New World Symphony and the San Francisco Symphony and has collaborated with top conductors such as Esa-Pekka Salonen and Michael Tilson Thomas, and with such performers as violinist Jennifer Koh and pianists Sarah Cahill and Emanuel Ax. Adams gained attention for Lyra (2020), a ballet that incorporates elements of composition, sound design, field recording, movement, and video. In September of 2021, Adams was the featured composer at California's Ojai Festival. He released his debut album, featuring a performance of Lyra in which he appeared on double bass, on the Earthy Records label in 2022. ~ James Manheim, Rovi