Seth Saltzman B.M. '81

Seth Saltzman is the Senior Vice President of Global Services at ASCAP, the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, where he has worked in a variety of roles since 1984. ASCAP is a membership association of over 850,000 U.S. composers, songwriters, lyricists, and music publishers of every kind of music. ASCAP is the only U.S. performing rights organization created and controlled by its members made up composers, songwriters, and music publishers. Seth received a bachelor’s degree in 1981 from the Berklee College of Music in Boston, MA. He majored in piano and film scoring and is still a professional musician. Seth joined ASCAP in the role of Radio Monitor where he identified music by listening to tapes of radio stations.  Seth rose through the ranks of management at ASCAP to become Senior VP of Member Management working closely with writers and publishers at all levels of their careers.  He headed the Distribution department during which time ASCAP greatly expanded its membership and distribution operations. He also visited and worked closely with performing rights societies around the world and worked and lived overseas on behalf of ASCAP while leading an international joint venture.

Since the 1980’s, Seth has returned often to Berklee to lecture about Performing Rights to students in the songwriting, film scoring and music business classes. He has also awarded scholarships from the ASCAP Foundation to deserving Berklee students during special ASCAP Days.

Seth has conducted and played piano for countless musical theater productions in New York and New Jersey over the years. Seth regularly presents musical lectures about Broadway and Hollywood composers.  He is currently the keyboard player with Joe D’Urso and Stone Caravan, a rock band in NY/NJ that plays original rock and roll.

In addition to his musical and music business activities, Seth served on the Board of Directors of WhyHunger for seven years, five of them as Chair of the Board.  WhyHunger, a global non-profit leader in the anti-hunger movement, is working to end hunger and advance the human right to nutritious food in the U.S. and around the world.  WhyHunger provides critical resources to support grassroots movements and fuels community solutions rooted in social, environmental, racial and economic justice.