Biography

"Seth's energy at the piano is thrilling."
--Jessica Redish, Director/ Choreographer, SSDC

"Seth stands out as one of the best accompanists at Equity auditions. He has a wonderful, energetic personality which comes through his playing, making him quickly in tune with the singer's needs, rhythm, and feelings."
--Jane Strauss, AEA

Seth has been incredibly informative about the audition scene and is very dedicated to his actors. I constantly get e-mail notices about potential jobs, showcase opportunities, etc. and feel fortunate to be part of his ever-growing network.
-Mara Jill Herman, Graduate, UArts

Seth Bisen-Hersh is one of my FAVORITE accompanists with whom to audition. Hes always spot-on with the tempo, embellishes just enough to really showcase my voice and gives me the edge I want and need to book the job. I am always confident when I walk in the door and see Seth at the piano. I know Im going to blow the table away!
--James E. Bullard, AEA

SETH BISEN-HERSH is a prolific and versatile New York City based musical theatre composer/ lyricist who works as a pianist, accompanist, musical director and vocal coach.

Bisen-Hersh grew up in East Brunswick, New Jersey where he started piano lessons at 8 and began composing songs at 13. He graduated from MIT with two Bachelors degrees (Computer Science and Music); then he completed his Masters in Music Technology at NYU. He began performing in shows in community theatre and summer theatre at a very young age, and was the musical director of EB's Children's Summer Theatre for many years. He directed many independent shows in EB, at MIT and NYU, creating many original revues of standard songs as well as his original ones.

In the summer of 2002, Bisen-Hersh made his professional cabaret debut at Don't Tell Mama with Two Singular Sensations, a battle of the ego through Broadway showtunes, co-starring Rori Nogee. Starting in 2003, Bisen-Hersh began doing nearly annual cabarets of his own material, commencing with solo acts then expanding to ensemble casts. Each cabaret consisted of 16-18 new songs grouped by theme: And Then She Dumped Me (2003), The Gayest Straight Man Alive (2004), Meaningful Sex (2005), Neurotic Tendencies (2006), Why Am I Not Famous Yet? (2007), Writers Block (2008), I'll Relax When I'm Dead (2010), If Adele Can Do It, So Can I (2013) and Not Your Grandma's Cabaret (unless she's really naughty) (2014).

Bisen-Hersh has completed the score for: Trivial Pursuits (music), Meaningless Sex (music/ lyrics), The Spickner Spin (music/ co-lyrics), A Kid Like Me (music/ lyrics), More to Love, Stanley's Party and Love Quirks. Trivial Pursuits premiered at MIT in the spring of 2001. Meaningless Sex premiered at the 2003 New York International Fringe Festival where it won the coveted Audience Favorite Award out of two-hundred shows. The following year in 2004, The Spickner Spin also won the Fringe Festival's Audience Favorite Award. A recording of A Kid Like Me, along with recordings of all of his shows and cabarets, is available on the Songs page.

More to Love had a successful reading at Theater1010 in July 2009, was featured in the West Village Musical Theatre Festival in June 2014 where it won "Best Lyrics" in its series. Stanley's Party is a childrens musical based on the children books, "Stanley's Wild Ride" and "Stanley's Party" by Linda Bailey and had a critically acclaimed 6 week production at Manhattan Children Theatre in the Spring 2010.

Finally, Love Quirks is a new musical about finding love despite all the quirks (your personal quirks, other people's quirks, the quirks of having love). It features some of Bisen-Hersh's most popular cabaret songs, as well as half a dozen new ones, and a poignant and hilarious book by Mark Childers. The show is eventually heading Off-Broadway after a critically-acclaimed, audience-adored 3-week run in 2014 and wonderful revised reading in 2015. The concept cast recording was launched October 1, 2013 and is available here.

In 2009, Bisen-Hersh developed two annual concerts of his work starring Broadway performers, where the proceeds go to charity: Broadway Meows for The Humane Society of New York, each July and Broadway Can!, a can collecting concert for City Harvest, each November.

In 2010, Bisen-Hersh premiered his web series, Every Day a Little Seth which is being used as a shameless audition for a sitcom. Each season features 6 hilarious episodes with songs, stories and cat cameos. The first season premiered in 2010 and the final season, season 5 concluded July 2015. Currently, Bisen-Hersh is working on adapting it to be a TV sitcom, the pilot of which will be filmed in 2016.

In addition, in 2015, Bisen-Hersh published a memoir filled with unabridged journal entries, real emails to friends, therapy recollections, medication analyses, and heart wrenching poems and song lyrics of his dark year of insomnia, anxiety and depression brought on from deep loss entitled Sleep. Write. Now. In 2016, Seth is publishing his second book Every Page a Little Seth, which is a book of 30 essays tangentially related to the topics of the 30 episodes of his web series. For more information on his books, please visits his Amazon Author Page, here.

Bisen-Hersh has played for Broadway auditions, as well as for hundreds of off-Broadway, LORT, summer stock, cruise line, reading, workshop and festival auditions. Furthermore, Bisen-Hersh has been musically directing and accompanying cabarets, readings and showcases in the city since 2003. (Details are available on his resume.) Since 2005, he has served as a vocal coach to actors, giving advice on auditions and building repertoires with the help of the over seventeen hundred CDs he owns. In 2006, Bisen-Hersh began offering Audition and Cabaret workshops. In 2007, Bisen-Hersh began producing/ emceeing/ accompanying weekly talent showcases at Don't Tell Mama. At 2015's end, he will have produced 387 showcases featuring over 1800 singers, a dozen of which have gone on to the Broadway.

In his limited spare time, Bisen-Hersh watches his favorite TV shows on his DVR (and Netflix), writes and solves puzzles including these for the 2014 MIT Mystery Hunt, and plays Chess and Scrabble variations on facebook.

He lives in Hell's Kitchen in a studio with his cat, Smee.