Guest ArtistsTed Sperling, conductor

Ted Sperling has maintained an active and successful career in the theater and concert worlds for 35 years. A multi-faceted artist, he is a director, music director, conductor, orchestrator, singer, pianist, violinist and violist. He is the Artistic Director of MasterVoices, Music Director of the recent Broadway production of My Fair Lady, and he leads the NYU Broadway Orchestra, training the next generation of Broadway musicians.

Mr. Sperling won the 2005 Tony and Drama Desk Awards for his orchestrations of The Light in the Piazza, for which he was also music director. Other Broadway credits as music director/conductor/pianist include the rapturously received revivals of Fiddler on the Roof, The King and I and South Pacific; Guys and Dolls, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, The Full Monty, How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying, Kiss of the Spider Woman, Angels in America, My Favorite Year, Falsettos, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, Les Misérables, Roza and Sunday in the Park with George. Mr. Sperling was also an original cast member of the Broadway musical Titanic, playing bandleader Wallace Hartley. Off-Broadway credits as music director include A Man of No Importance, Wise Guys, A New Brain, Saturn Returns, Floyd Collins, Falsettoland and Romance in Hard Times. Other highlights include Lady in the Dark, Of Thee I Sing, The Grapes of Wrath, Babes in Toyland, Dido and Aeneas and Orfeo ed Euridice, all for MasterVoices.

Mr. Sperling’s work as a stage director includes the world premieres of five musicals: Red Eye of Love, The Other Josh Cohen, See What I Wanna See, Charlotte: Life? Or Theater? and Striking 12, as well as a revival of Lady in the Dark. He has conducted the scores for the films The Manchurian Candidate (2004) and Everything Is Illuminated, and directed the short film, Love Mom, starring Tonya Pinkins, which has been shown in five international festivals. Recent gala concerts that Mr. Sperling has directed include: Show Boat, starring Vanessa Williams, Julian Ovenden, Lauren Worsham, Norm Lewis and the NY Philharmonic; One Singular Sensation, featuring Jane Lynch, Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Zachary Quinto and the original cast of A Chorus Line; The Pirates of Penzance with Kevin Kline, Glenn Close, Jonathan Groff, Anika Noni Rose, Martin Short and Eric Idle; Cabaret with Anne Hathaway, Harvey Feierstein, Linda Lavin, Raul Esparza and Eddie Redmayne; Song of Norway with Judy Kaye, Santino Fontana, Jason Danieley and Alexandra Silber; and The Mikado with Victoria Clark, Kelli O’Hara, Jonathan Freeman, Steve Rosen, Lauren Worsham, Jason Danieley and Christopher Fitzgerald. 

Mr. Sperling has an active concert career, working with many major symphony orchestras, and singers Audra McDonald, Victoria Clark, Patti LuPone, Kelli O’Hara, Nathan Gunn, Idina Menzel, Paulo Szot and Deborah Voigt. He has conducted multiple concerts with the New York Philharmonic, for Live at Lincoln Center, the American Songbook Series at Lincoln Center and the Lyrics and Lyricists series at the 92nd Street Y. Recent performances at Carnegie Hall include the NY premieres of Not the Messiah starring Eric Idle; Kurt Weill's The Road of Promise starring Anthony Dean Griffey; and Ricky Ian Gordon’s opera, The Grapes of Wrath, starring Nathan Gunn, Elizabeth Futral, Christine Ebersole and Victoria Clark. Mr. Sperling conducted Audra McDonald in a double bill of La Voix Humaine and the world premiere of Send: Who Are You? I Love You? at the Houston Grand Opera. Mr. Sperling’s television appearances include many Live from Lincoln Center broadcasts, as well as a Saturday Night Live Christmas show with Michael Bublé.

Mr. Sperling's guest conducting engagements have include Iceland Symphony, San Francisco Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Houston Grand Opera, Toronto Symphony and the San Diego Symphony. Artists Mr. Sperling had directed and conducted include Glenn Close, Audra McDonald, Anne Hathaway, Kevin Kline, Idina Menzel, Jonathan Groff, Martin Short, Eric Idle, Linda Lavin, Harvey Feierstein, Eddie Redmayne, Kelli O’Hara, Victoria Clark, Anthony Roth Constanzo, Bryn Terfel, Randy Newman, Nathan Gunn, Stephanie Blythe, and Anthony Roth Constanzo.

Ted Sperling received the 2006 Ted Shen Family Foundation Award for leadership in the musical theater, is a consultant to the Public Theater and is Creative Director of the 24-Hour Musicals.