Steven Saltzman

Biography

Steven Saltzman, MPSE, MPEG

Music editor and composer Steven Saltzman has a unique take on music and film. His diverse background and his passion for teaching give him the ability to create a new way of understanding the world of music editing. He earned a Bachelors of Music in composition and film scoring from Berklee College of Music in Boston. Leading up to this degree, he also attended the Comprehensive Musicianship Bachelors program at Moorhead State College, one of ten such programs in the United States. Steven also studied composition with Boston Conservatory composer John Hess and while on the
East Coast, he composed music for WGBH and ABC Television, independent films, and a variety of commercials, as well as for the theatre. He moved to California to pursue his dream of composing in the film industry. There he continued to study composition and orchestration with Dr. Albert Harris, and he attended the BMI Film Scoring workshop with Earl Hagan. He composed the scores for numerous independent feature films, commercials, and syndicated television shows. One of those films went on to receive a nomination for an Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Award of Merit for best animated short film.
For the past eighteen years Mr. Saltzman has focused his career on music editing. He as recently authored his new book published by Focal Press a Taylor & Francis Group entitled: Music Editing For Film and Television: The Art and The Process. His music editing work includes: Queen Of The Desert, Brick Mansions, Movie 43, Priest, Seven Days in Utopia, Straw Dogs (remake), Born to be a Star, The Hole, The Answer Man, Dragonball Evolution, WAR, Inc., Ghost Rider (additional editing), Bewitched, A Guy Thing, Heartbreakers, and Hyperion Bay, a Warner Bros. television series. He has worked with many composers, including Klaus Badelt, Mark Mothersbaugh, Nathan Furst, Robert Revell, J.A.C. Redford, and Larry Groupé. He has also received a Golden Reel Award and two nominations for his music editing. Mr. Saltzman is a certified expert Avid Pro Tools instructor and has created a music-editing course, which he has been teaching for the past nine years. He has taught at UCLA Extension, Moviola Digital Arts Institute, Video Symphony, Community Colleges in Los Angeles and Riverside, California and is presently an instructor at Musicians Institute in Hollywood. He has lectured and presented at the Motion Picture Editors Guild, Audio Engineering Society, Ex’pression College in San Francisco, Media Institute in Minneapolis, and most recently joined the faculty at the Palomar Film Music Workshop. He serves on the Board of Directors for Motion Picture Sound Editors (MPSE), and the Advisory Boards of Los Angeles City College and the University High School Recording Arts Program. He is a member of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, the Society of Composers and Lyricists, The MPSE and the Local 47 Musicians Union.  

Areas of Research / Professional Expertise

Music Editing, Composing,  Teaching

Personal Interests

... Family, Art, Theater, Cooking, Kriegspiel

Books

Articles