About Me

Samuel Tosto is a composer, educator, and learning designer from Madison, North Carolina. His creative journey began at age twelve, inspired by his grandfather’s legacy as a performing musician and club owner whose stage once hosted icons like B.J. Thomas, Percy Sledge, and Little Richard. Those early stories—and his own fascination with film, television, and video games—sparked a lifelong passion for music and storytelling.

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By his teens, Tosto had formed the Christian thrash-metal band Leap To Nowhere, writing original material and performing throughout the region. After the group disbanded, he continued composing and recording across genres, building a professional home studio and expanding into film and game scoring. His music blends classical orchestration with modern rock influences, shaped by years of performance and technical discipline.

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Tosto earned his B.A. in Music from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (2020, with honors) and his M.F.A. in Film Music Composition from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts (2024). He is currently pursuing a Master of Education in Learning, Design & Technology at UNC Charlotte, combining his artistic expertise with instructional design and multimedia learning development.

Drawing from more than a decade of private teaching experience with students ages four to eighty, Tosto brings empathy, creativity, and structure to both his classrooms and his compositions. Today, he continues to compose for film and visual media, teach private music lessons, and design engaging learning experiences that unite sound, story, and technology under a shared goal: helping others learn and feel through art.