Ted Sperling

Ted Sperling is a Manhattan-born musical director, conductor, orchestrator, arranger, stage director, and musician whose career has been centered primarily on stage and concert work. He began studying violin at age five and enrolled at the Juilliard School at sixteen. He went on to graduate from Yale University summa cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa at the age of twenty-one.

Sperling's Broadway career spans multiple disciplines. He appeared on stage in the original 1997 production of Titanic, performing as part of an on-stage trio of musicians and portraying bandleader Wallace Hartley. His work as a musical director and conductor on Broadway includes the 2005 production of The Light in the Piazza and the 2008 revival of South Pacific. He also served as musical director and arranger on productions including The Full Monty (2000), Guys and Dolls (2008), and How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1995). His Off-Broadway work as a musical director or related capacity spans from Gus and Al in 1989 through Striking 12 in 2006.

His orchestrations for The Light in the Piazza earned him the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations and the Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestrations, both in 2005. On that same production he also served as musical director and conductor.

Sperling began directing in regional theatre in 2001, with productions including Lady in the Dark and Peter Pan and Wendy at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia. He directed See What I Wanna See both regionally and Off-Broadway in 2004 and 2005, and staged Striking 12 at the Daryl Roth Theatre in 2006. In 2002 he was named Associate Artistic Director of the Prince Music Theater, and in 2008 he was appointed Director of the Public Theater's Musical Theatre Initiative.

His connection to performer Victoria Clark dates to their time together at Yale University, where both sang in the Yale Chapel Choir and Sperling served as first violist in the Yale Symphony Orchestra. He has since worked as her musical conductor for concerts. He has also conducted concerts for Audra McDonald, including her Houston Grand Opera debut in March 2006 and her New York Philharmonic New Year's Eve concert on December 31, 2006.

Sperling has served as Artistic Director of MasterVoices, formerly known as the Collegiate Chorale, a position to which he was appointed in 2013 and again noted in 2015. In addition to his stage work, he appeared on television as Steve Allen in the second season finale of The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel, in a scene featuring Luke Kirby as Lenny Bruce.