Leeds Levy

A current member of the Board of Directors of both ASCAP and NMPA, and President of his own independent music publishing company, Leeds Music, Leeds Levy was formerly President of Chrysalis Music Group, Inc. During his six years with Chrysalis, Levy published a genre-diverse range of musical compositions with many successful chart recordings by Elvis Presley, Sum 41, Avril Lavigne, Andrea Bocelli, OutKast and David Gray. Until 1991, Levy was the President of MCA Music Publishing, the world's third largest music publisher. He began his career in music publishing in 1975 as a Field Representative for ASCAP. In 1977, Levy established Elton John and Bernie Taupin's American music publishing operations. In that capacity, he personally marketed John's and Taupin's songs and actively signed, developed and promoted new songwriters for their company, Rocket Music. In the fall of 1978, Levy joined MCA as Assistant to the President, Sal Chiantia. Charged with the responsibility of revitalizing the music publishing division of MCA, he reorganized the creative staff and implemented a daring plan to develop a roster of active, contemporary, exclusive staff songwriters. On his 29th birthday in 1981, Levy was appointed President of MCA's worldwide music publishing operations. Over the next decade, Levy grew the revenues of that division from $12 million to well over $70 million. This growth included the establishment of owned and operated foreign offices in all key markets and record production entities in a variety of genres, resulting in multi-platinum selling artists Lee Greenwood and Alanis Morissette. During Levy's presidency, MCA published hits by a variety of artists including: The Beatles, Michael Jackson, Madonna, Alanis Morissette, Aerosmith, Whitney Houston, INXS, Janet Jackson, Luther Vandross, Sarah McLachlan, David Sanborn, Randy Travis, George Strait, Lee Greenwood, Alannah Myles and Bobby Brown, as well as numerous scores to motion pictures, television productions and Broadway musicals including: Twin Peaks, E.T., Out of Africa, Miami Vice, Evita and The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas. Furthermore, Levy oversaw MCA's triumph as ASCAP's coveted Country Music Publisher of the Year award for two consecutive years. Levy received his B.A. in Anthropology from Boston University and attended both the Berklee College of Music and the Juilliard School. He is the son of Leeds Music founder Lou Levy. Prior to his election to ASCAP's Board of Directors, Levy served as a member of ASCAP's Board of Review. Additionally, Levy is the youngest individual to serve on both ASCAP's and the National Music Publisher Association's (NMPA) Board of Directors, serving as Chairman of ASCAP's Survey and Distribution and Law and Licensing Committees as well as being a member of the NMPA's International Committee. Levy consults to Peermusic in connection with their exclusive agreement with 14-time Grammy Award-winning producer and composer, David Foster. He has also consulted to the Walt Disney Company and Motown Records and has testified multiple times as an expert witness on music publishing. Levy is also a co-founder of the recently launched BravoOpera, the world's first Internet portal featuring broadband video streaming of opera.