Seth Grosshandler received his B.A. in Music from Reed College with a focus on music composition. His thesis composition - a Quintet for Piano and Winds – won the Reed College Class of 1921 Award, given for “creative work of notable character, involving an unusual degree of initiative and spontaneity.” He then spent a year in Paris, France, studying composition and orchestration, before going to law school. During law school and throughout his brief (35-year) gig as a lawyer, he performed as a pianist in several chamber music concerts in the New York City and Chicago areas. Since retiring as a lawyer in 2018, he has focused again on composition, while continuing to perform his own and others’ works.  

Seth’s works have been performed in esteemed festivals and halls such as Carnegie Hall, Merkin Hall, Crescent City Chamber Music Festival, Kallos Chamber Music Series, California Festival, Kosciuszko Foundation, Brooklyn Art Song Society, Treetops Chamber Music, Music Mountain, Hotchkiss Library, Candelight Concert Society in Maryland, Baruch Performing Arts Center, Suite Française, Howland Chamber Music Circle, and Ortus Festival among others.

His works have been performed by the Ulysses Quartet, Oskar Espina Ruiz, Marmen Quartet, Christina Bouey,  Max Levinson, Brooklyn Chamber Orchestra, Manhattan Chamber Players, New York Classical Players, and Bay Area Rainbow Symphony. He has received commissions from the Cayuga Chamber Orchestra, Symphony of the Mountains, and New York Classical Players. 

Seth is also a visual artist, focusing on printmaking.  He has been a student of Wendy Shalen and Bill Behnken at the Art Students League and of Elaine Brieger at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.  He uses discarded materials such as packing materials and old record albums to create plates from which he creates monoprints (often using chine collé) that either stand on their own or are further manipulated in collages or elaborated with hand painting.  Several of his monoprints were selected to be shown and sold at the Art Students League booth at the Affordable Art Fair in New York City in March, 2022.