Samuel Pellman was born in 1953 in Sidney, Ohio. He received a Bachelor of Music degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio, where he studied composition with David Cope, and an M.F.A. and D.M.A. from Cornell University, where he studied with Karel Husa and Robert Palmer.

Many of his works can be heard on recordings by the Musical Heritage Society, Move Records, and Innova Recordings, including his October 2003 release titled Selected Planets. Much of his music is published by the Continental Music Press and the Wesleyan Music Press.

Recently his music has been presented at the International Symposium of the World Forum for Acoustic Ecology in Melbourne, Australia; the Electric Rainbow Coalition festival at Dartmouth College; and the Musicacoustica Festival at the Central Conservatory for Music in Beijing.

Pellman was the author of An Introduction to the Creation of Electroacoustic Music, a widely-adopted textbook published by Cengage. A Professor of Music at Hamilton College, he taught music theory and composition and was co-director of the Studio for Transmedia Arts and Related Studies. He was also the organist and the director of instrumental music at the Clinton United Methodist Church.

Pellman was stuck and killed while riding his bike, November 2017.