Meet the Music Director
Scott Speck, Music Director
Scott Speck is a great communicator of classical music. He exudes his passion for music in every gesture and every word."
-- David Styers, American Symphony Orchestra League
"Scott Speck's sensuous and exciting interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony took the audience by storm. His sure, free and expressive conducting style electrified and swept away the Russian musicians. The sophisticated Moscow public was extremely generous with long and tumultuous applause."
-- Pravda, Moscow
Scott Speck has inspired worldwide acclaim as a conductor of symphony, opera and ballet performances. Currently Music Director of the West Michigan Symphony, the Mobile Symphony (AL), and the Washington Ballet (DC), he conducted the San Francisco Ballet from 1998 to 2002. Previously he was Music Advisor/ Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony and Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera. During a recent tour of Asia he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the China Film Philharmonic in Beijing.
Scott Speck has conducted at London's Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Paris Opera, Moscow's Tchaikovsky Hall, Washington's Kennedy Center, San Francisco's War Memorial Opera House, and the Los Angeles Music Center. In recent seasons he has led the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Houston, Paris, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing, Buffalo, Columbus (OH), Honolulu, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Rochester, Tampa, and Virginia, among many others.
Scott Speck is the co-author of two of the world's best-selling books on classical music for a popular audience, Classical Music for Dummies and Opera for Dummies. These books have received stellar reviews in both the national and international press and have garnered enthusiastic endorsements from major American orchestras. They have been translated into over fifteen languages and are available around the world. His third book in the series, Ballet for Dummies, was released in September 2003.
Scott Speck has been a regular commentator on National Public Radio, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and Voice of Russia, broadcast throughout the world. His writing has been featured in numerous magazines and journals.
Born in Boston, Scott Speck is a Fulbright Scholar, a summa cum laude graduate of Yale University, and an Aspen Conducting Fellow. He is fluent in English, German and French, has a diploma in Italian, speaks Spanish and has a reading knowledge of Russian.