Samuel Gesser was best known across Canada as an impresario, a man who produced more than six thousand folk, classical, pop music, dance, and live theatre performances featuring many hundreds of artists—from Leonard Cohen to Janis Joplin; virtuosi Julian Bream, Van Cliburn, and Isaac Stern; the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; national folkloric dance ensembles from Africa, Asia, and Europe; classical and modern dance companies from Alvin Ailey to the Royal Winnipeg Ballet; musical theatre galore; and European and Chinese opera.

In the 1960s he programmed jazz and classical music festivals as well as the Canadian pavilion stages at World Fairs in Montreal (Expo 67) and Osaka, Japan (Expo 70).

After he retired from concert production in the 1990s, he wrote movie scripts and plays.