Longtime ASCAP Board Member Arnold Broido, Chairman of Theodore Presser Company, Dies at 87

Arnold Broido, Chairman of the Theodore Presser Company, a leading publisher of symphonic and concert music, and Treasurer of the ASCAP Board of Directors, died on October 25 at the Quadrangle retirement community skilled nursing center in Haverford, Pennsylvania. He was 87 years old.

Arnold Broido began his long career in the music field as a piano student at the Mannes School, later studied at Juilliard, and then at Ithaca College, from where he graduated in 1941. He taught music briefly at East Junior High School in Binghamton, New York until World War II, which was spent musically in the U.S. Coast Guard, including sea duty around the world on troop transports. After the war, with no teaching jobs open, he joined Boosey & Hawkes as head of the stockroom, became editor, and so began a long series of adventures in music publishing. His career took him from Boosey to Century and Mercury Music, then to E.B. Marks, Frank Music Corp., Boston Music and, finally, in 1969, to the Theodore Presser Company as President. At the time of his death, he was Chairman of the Board of both Presser and Elkan-Vogel, Inc. and actively headed the publication department of the group. In 1990, Ithaca College honored him with the Doctor of Music degree in recognition of his activities on behalf of contemporary music and intellectual property. In 1998 the American Music Center awarded him their Letter of Distinction "for his significant contributions to the field of contemporary music."

After serving on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1972 to 1979, Broido was reelected in 1981 and voted Treasurer in 1990. At the time of his death he was also a Director and Treasurer of The ASCAP Foundation. In addition to his work at ASCAP and Presser, some of his activities included: Director and Secretary of the National Music Publishers Association, Director and Secretary of the Harry Fox Agency, former President and current Director of the Music Publishers Association of the United States, Chairman of the International Confederation of Music Publishers and President of the International Federation of Serious Music Publishers.