Samu Gryllus (b. 1976) was born in Budapest, Hungary. He earned his BFA from the Franz Liszt Music Academy in jazz bass and jazz pedagogy in 2001. In 2007, he received his MFA in media composition and, in 2012, in composition from the University of Music and Performing Arts, Vienna (MDW), where he studied under Michael Jarrell and Klaus Peter Sattler. In 2005, with the help of the Erasmus Programme, Samu studied composition and experimental music theater with Walter Zimmerman and Daniel Ott at the University of Arts (UDK) in Berlin. In 2008/2009, he studied with Alvin Lucier, Anthony Braxton and Ron Kuivila at the Wesleyan University (Connecticut, USA) as a Fulbright Scholar. He is a doctorate candidate at the University of Theater and Film Art in Budapest where his research area is multidisciplinary performance art and instrumental theater. Since 2013, he teaches composition at the Vienna Music Institute in Vienna. Since 2014, he teaches contemporary chamber music and sound painting at the Szecheny University of Győr for instrumentalists, as well as sound painting for actors at the University of Theater in Budapest. Between the age of 15 and 30, he worked in 40 theatre and film productions in various countries (Austria, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, US, and Hungary). Samu has studied Hindustani, Javanese and Balinese classical music and participated in master courses in composition of AO with George Aperghis, Peter Eötvös, Jonathan Harvey and Marco Stroppa. He has received numerous grants. His works have been performed at various festivals (Wien Modern, Bartok Festival), and at various locations (Carnegie Hall, Wiener Konzerthaus, Palace of Arts (MüPa) Budapest, in museums, parks and botanic gardens). He has composed chamber operas commissioned by the Sophiensaele Berlin (2007), Theater an der Wien (2011), Peter Eötvös Foundation (2014) and the Hungarian State Opera (2017). His installations have been exhibited at the Brooklyn Museum of Arts, Ludwig Museum Budapest. He is a board member of the Transparent Sound New Music Festival in Budapest. In 2008, together with his colleagues, he co-founded MuPATh (Music- Performance-Art- Theater), an organization whose mission is to create interdisciplinary collaborations. Leading workshops at many universities in the region and beyond, he is the founder of the Hungarian Sound Painting Society (Maszat), a member of the W.H. Performing Band, the artist group IKULT (Internationale Kulturplattform), and the Austrian section of the International Society for Contemporary Music. He often works with musicians coming from diverse musical and social backgrounds, as well as with folk and jazz musicians. In some of his works, he operates with his own musically instructed Archetype cards.