Zachary Seldess (b. 1976), a Chicago native now living in Saudi Arabia, is a media artist, composer, teacher, and programmer. He is currently finishing a PhD in composition at The Graduate Center CUNY where his primary teachers were Amnon Wolman and Morton Subotnick. He has received a B.Mus in composition and classical guitar and an M.Mus in classical guitar from Northwestern University. There he studied composition with Alan Stout and Michael Pisaro and guitar with Anne Waller.

As a composer and programmer, Zachary has collaborated with artists in many mediums including theater, dance, film, and poetry. He has presented interactive installations at Gallery Aferro in Newark New Jersey, ZKM (Zentrum fur Kust und Medientechnologie) in Karlsruhe Germany, and Siggraph Asia 2009 in Yokohama Japan. His work has been published in Antennae, a biannual print journal of experimental poetry and music, and he has presented artistic and educational software at the 2007 New Interfaces in Musical Expression Conference and the Chamber Music America 2009 National Conference. Zachary spends much time these days creating interactive media artwork, particularly within the Max/MSP/Jitter programming environment. In addition to his own projects, he currently works as a programmer and teacher. Together with performer-composer Jane Rigler, Zachary is currently co-designing and programming the Manhattan New Music Project's “Music Cre8tor” - an interactive educational sensor/software interface designed specifically for children with disabilities. Other projects include sound design and programming for New York-based dancer Johari Mayfield; and design of real-time multi-channel audio and video performance software for video artist Hisao Ihara. Zachary has also programmed for artists Lillian Ball, Rashaad Newsome, Patrick Clancy, Miguel Frasconi, Mari Kimura, Rebecca Cherry, Mem1, Tobaron Waxman, Shana Moulton, and others.

Zachary currently works as Audio Systems Coordinator and Lead Developer in the Advanced Computation and Visualization Research Facility, King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST). His responsibilities include operating and conducting research on the multi-channel networked audio systems throughout facility, controlled by Meyer's CueStation software and other custom software; training and working with faculty, researchers, and students in the facilities; and creating audio for research projects and demonstration content. He also works as a programmer and teacher at Harvestworks, where he teaches courses in interactive programming ranging from introductory courses in Max/MSP/Jitter and Processing to special topics such as multi-channel audio/video spatialization and live video tracking. In Chicago, Zachary worked as a performer, composer, private teacher and adjunct professor at Wilbur Wright College and Harold Washington College. In the recent past, Zachary worked as an adjunct music lecturer at Brooklyn College CUNY, and as a researcher at the CUNY Graduate Center’s New Media Lab, where he designed interactive pedadogical tools and artistics environments in 3D Game Space using the Torque Game Engine and Max/MSP. In 2005, Zachary founded the Intermedia Arts Group, a collective committed to the support and performance of new and interactive media artwork within the CUNY artistic community. He is also co-director of the New York Electroacoustic Music Festival and Conference – featuring three days of mixed-media concert works, interactive sound installations, paper sessions, and workshops.