Samantha Holmes was born in Gillingham, England and began playing guitar at the age of 12. Samantha started out as a self taught rock based guitar player. In 2015 she began studying seriously with Tom Hess to bring her skills to the next level. She continues to remain a student of his to enhance her technical skills and mastery of rock based guitar.
In 2017, she studied with Damien Erskine under the Jazz performance program at Portland State University. While studying jazz guitar at PSU, Samantha took part in multiple recitals, juries and masterclasses.
In 2018, Samantha began studying classical guitar independently with John Mery.
Samantha has performed independently and with previous bands spanning as far back as 2006. In 2018, she and nineteen other performers, out of around two hundred, were selected to perform in the advanced rock category at the Hessfest event. She performed her original music solo and also collaborated with another guitarist to complete a joint performance. After this event, voting took place and Samantha was picked to perform again for the Hessfest event in 2019 under the same category.
Samantha is pursuing her undergraduate at the University of Arizona under Tom Patterson as a classical guitar performance major. In addition to this she is an instructor for rock and popular guitar styles.