Music Director Scott Speck will lead West Michigan Symphony through 2022

Muskegon, Michigan, September 29, 2018—Music Director Scott Speck, whose 16-year tenure has marked the growth of West Michigan Symphony into a regional professional orchestra, will continue to lead the organization through the spring of 2022. Executive Director Andy Buelow announced the extension of Speck’s contract at the season opening concert on September 28.

“One of the first things said to me after my arrival last winter was, ‘Make sure we keep Scott Speck here as long as possible,’” Buelow noted. “He is a visionary and I am delighted to be able to announce his continuing leadership with the West Michigan Symphony.”

The co-author of the best-selling Classical Music for Dummies and similar books on ballet and opera, Speck has an international profile that includes conducting in 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 guest conducted the orchestras of Baltimore, Houston, Paris, Moscow, Shanghai, Beijing, Vancouver, Romania, Slovakia, Buffalo, Louisville, New Orleans, Oregon, Rochester, Florida, and Virginia, among many others.

In addition to WMS, Speck holds leadership positions with the Mobile Symphony, Joffrey Ballet and Chicago Philharmonic. During a recent tour of Asia he was named Principal Guest Conductor of the China Film Philharmonic in Beijing. Previously he held positions as Conductor of the San Francisco Ballet; Music Advisor and Conductor of the Honolulu Symphony; and Associate Conductor of the Los Angeles Opera. His recent concerts with the Moscow RTV Symphony Orchestra in Tchaikovsky Hall garnered unanimous praise.

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.