Seth Boustead is an award-winning composer, broadcaster, and arts innovator whose work explores new ways of creating, presenting, and experiencing classical music. As a composer, he has developed a highly personal musical voice across chamber music, opera, film, dance, and multimedia projects. His recent work includes La Jetée, a chamber opera inspired by Chris Marker’s landmark 1962 film, as well as new works for chamber ensembles, film, and dance. His music is performed regularly throughout the United States and Europe and has been heard on radio and television nationally and internationally.

Boustead is the founder and Executive Director of Access Contemporary Music (ACM), which he created to make contemporary classical music a more visible and vital part of everyday life. Through ACM, he has developed an array of innovative programs including the Sound of Silent Film Festival, the Thirsty Ears Festival, international commissioning projects, concert series in Chicago and New York, and a community music school serving hundreds of students.

In 2025, Boustead opened The CheckOut, a former 7-Eleven transformed into an intimate venue for adventurous music in Chicago. The project reflects a recurring theme throughout his career: creating unexpected places and new contexts in which audiences can encounter music.

Since 2005, Boustead has also introduced audiences to contemporary music as the creator and host of Relevant Tones, an internationally syndicated radio program that now continues as a podcast with nearly 500 episodes. He is the creator and host of Songs About Buildings and Moods, a nationally broadcast PBS series exploring the relationship between music and architecture.

Boustead was named the Chicago Tribune’s 2025 Chicagoan of the Year for Classical Music and is a recipient of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.