Conductor Scott Speck- Bio

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." -Moscow, Pravda
With recent performances in London, Paris, Moscow, Beijing, San Francisco and
Washington, Scott Speck has inspired international acclaim as a conductor of passion,
intelligence and winning personality.

Scott Speck's concerts with the Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall
during the past season garnered unanimous praise. His gala performance with Yo-Yo Ma
highlighted his fifth season as Music Director of the Mobile Symphony. This season he
also collaborated intensively with Carnegie Hall as Music Director of the West Shore
Symphony (MI); and was invited to the White House as Music Director of the
Washington Ballet.

In recent seasons Scott Speck has conducted at London's Royal Opera House at Covent
Garden, the Paris Opera, Washington's Kennedy Center, San Francisco's War Memorial
Opera House, and the Los Angeles Music Center. He has led numerous performances
with the symphony orchestras of Baltimore, Houston, Paris, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing,
Buffalo, Columbus (OH), Honolulu, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Rochester,
Florida, and Virginia, among many others.

Previously he held positions as Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet (1998 to 2002);
Music Advisor and 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.

In addition, Scott Speck 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 twenty 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 graduated summa cum laude from Yale University. There he
founded and directed the Berkeley Chamber Orchestra, which continues to perform to
this day. He was a Fulbright Scholar in Berlin, where he founded Concerto Grosso
Berlin, an orchestra dedicated to the performances of Baroque and Classical music in a
historically informed style. He received his Master's Degree with highest honors from the
University of Southern California, served as a Conducting Fellow at the Aspen School of
Music, and studied at the Tanglewood Music Center. He is fluent in English, German and
French, has a diploma in Italian, speaks Spanish and has a reading knowledge of Russian.

"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