Samels had many talents, good heart

Robert Samels had made an important decision this semester. Samels, his friends and mentors say, had so many talents -- singing, acting, writing, composing and conducting, among others -- that it had come time for the Jacobs School of Music doctoral student to decide which would be his career focus. \nIn February, Samels chose voice, heading for a career as a singer and a performer. He had already lined up a residency with the famed Wolf Trap Opera Company in Vienna, Va., and was to have three roles in performances this summer. \nAndreas Poulimenos, a voice professor at IU, had known Samels since he was an undergraduate at Bowling Green State University. Poulimenos said Samels' decision was just another step toward a career already decorated with numerous, diverse achievements.\n"He's composed and written symphonies, won awards for those symphonies, written requiems, written songs, written oratorios," Poulimenos said. "He just wrote an opera that was performed last year that was reviewed very well. \n"It all just shows that there was a budding genius just walking around IU."\nSamels triple-majored in voice, bassoon and composition as an undergraduate at Bowling Green and took classes each year with Poulimenos, who was hired at IU in 2002. \nPoulimenos became acquainted with Samels' sense of humor early on. When Samels forgot to wear black pants for a part, he borrowed the stage manager's pair. The stage manager, though, was Poulimenos' daughter and Samels proudly told his professor the next day, "I got into your daughter's pants last night."\n"He definitely had a sense of humor," Poulimenos joked. "But that's Robert. He always was a wonderful kid."\nSamels chose IU over full scholarships from the University of Cincinnati and Michigan. He received a master of voice in 2004 and began the doctor of music program the same year, with choral conducting as his concentration.\nDespite his workload as a student, Samels found the time to garner numerous accomplishments. \nIn just the last year and a half, Samels had roles in IU productions of "A View From the Bridge," "A Midsummer Night's Dream" and "Our Town." He sang in performances throughout the state and country, including one at the Library of Congress as a soloist with the Aguavá New Music Studio.\nSamels also independently wrote and put on an opera in September 2005 called PILATVS, doing everything from securing the funds for the production to renting the Union's Alumni Hall himself.\nSamels spent time at WFIU as well, working as a producer, announcer and a host for "Cantabile," a show that featured new and historic choral and opera recordings. \nSamels also balanced his studies and other work with a job teaching music theory classes. \nJunior Alison Stewart was taking a class with Samels this semester and said he brought something special to the course. Samels knew everyone's names after the first day, Stewart said, and would always stop and chat if he saw his students passing through the school.\n"He made the class a pleasure to go to," she said. "He was really concerned with all of the students' progress and that we were passing and understanding things. And he was just a really good person."\nSamels also had interests beyond music. Poulimenos remembers seeing him pull aside some of the Korean students in his classes one day. It turned out Samels was trying to learn Korean, too. \n"He had endless energy," said Costanza Cuccaro, the voice professor Samels was studying with this semester. "And he did them all with ease. He never appeared rushed or like he had too much or too hectic a schedule. I don't know how he managed to slow time down, but he did."\nIncluded in that time management was making space in his schedule each week to meet with Poulimenos or sit in on one of his classes.\n"He would always come to the studio, and we would talk," Poulimenos said. "I wasn't his official teacher, but I was sort of like his mentor. We did talk about what I thought, what he was doing. He really blossomed at IU."\nCuccaro said that blossoming was thanks largely to Samels' constant drive to learn. Cuccaro met with Samels in a weekly hour-long class as part of the doctoral program.\n"It was a joy to teach him," she said. "He has a curiosity to learn that was amazing. He was very quick and caught on to every exercise immediately. He really had a hunger to learn vocal technique."\nDavid Sadlier, another doctoral student in the program, got to know Samels when they starred in "A View From A Bridge" together. After that, Sadlier said Samels became a fixture in his family's life and his 2-year-old daughter even called him "Uncle Robert."\n"It's rare to find somebody who is immensely intelligent and so amazingly personable and funny and original," Sadlier said. "He kind of represented all you'd want in a person. He was successful, he was creative, he was funny. And because he was so multifaceted, he had friends in every walk of life."\nSamels might have died at 24, but those that knew him said they are sure he would have had a successful career singing, acting, composing, conducting or exploring any of the talents he had developed or perhaps even those he'd yet to discover. \n"He was a genius," Poulimenos said. "He was 24 years old when he died, but he literally lived a full life in that 24 years"