Ted Sperling’s career has come full circle

by Michael Cobb

Ted Sperling first became acquainted with Norfolk in 1981, while studying the viola at the Yale Summer School of Music. As a student, he had a front-row seat to the evolution of the Tokyo String Quartet, who were in residence that year, breaking in the violinist Peter Oundjian. “It was exciting to watch them train a new first violinist. It was a major change and the first new member they’d ever had,” he recalls. 

Today, Sperling, who divides his time between New York City and Norfolk, is a highly-regarded director, music director, conductor, orchestrator, singer, pianist, violinist and violist. His work orchestrating the Broadway musical “Light in the Piazza” earned him a Tony Award and a Drama Desk Award in 2005.

Sperling’s musical journey started in Manhattan, where he began taking violin lessons at age five. He entered Juilliard as a teenager and graduated Phi Beta Kappa and summa cum laude from Yale University with a bachelor’s degree in music.. 

As a child, he grew up listening to a wide variety of music. “My maternal grandmother was a professional musician; she was a singer first and a voice teacher later. Her husband was a very good amateur violinist. There was a lot of music on that side of the family. My family loved music, and we listened to a lot of music at home. I remember hearing Eastern European folk music, and later discovered Belgian violinist Roby Lakatos, whose music had a big impact on me.” By his first year of college, Sperling knew he wanted to pursue a career in music. “I’d already devoted so much time and energy to it, and I was always hearing music in my head,” he says. 

During his career, Sperling has worked in nearly every area of musical production, from accompanying other musicians on the piano to directing productions. He enjoys the intellectual stimulation that comes from taking on new challenges and says, “I made a conscious decision to concentrate on musical theater because I enjoy the collaborative aspect, not just making beautiful sounds. Though it’s already been 20 years, directing is the most recent role for me. I’d been lucky to work with quite a few directors who were extremely musical but also wanted my input into the whole design of the production. That gave me great firsthand experience, and now I enjoy doing it all.”

In a career with many highlights, several moments stand out for Sperling: “The work I did in composer Adam Guettel’s ‘Floyd Collins,’ ‘Light in the Piazza,’ and ‘Myths and Hymns’ was very joyous and exciting. I also enjoyed working as music director of the recent Broadway productions of ‘My Fair Lady’ and ‘Fiddler on the Roof” with director Bartlett Sher. “Fiddler” came out when I was a kid, and I performed it in summer camp and later in high school. To conduct it on Broadway with a full orchestra was incredibly meaningful.”

In 2013, Oskar Eustis, artistic director of the Public Theater in New York, asked Sperling to direct “The Pirates of Penzance” in Central Park. “That was a one-night event to benefit the Public Theater. We used the mid-80s version, which was fresh and fun. I love Gilbert and Sullivan. Monty Python’s Eric Idle wrote to us and let us know he wanted to play the Chief of Police, which we couldn’t refuse. The cast also included Glenn Close, Martin Short, and Kevin Kline as the Pirate King. It was incredible. I got to know Eric doing that, and I knew that he had been inspired to write [the oratorio] ‘Not the Messiah’ based on ‘Life of Brian.’  I’d been looking for something to do with my group MasterVoices. Instead of doing the traditional ‘Messiah,’ we did ‘Not the Messiah’ at Carnegie Hall for two nights. It was great fun.”

Sperling has also collaborated with and directed other A-list talent, including singer-songwriter Randy Newman, famous for his hit single “Short People” and for scoring all four of the “Toy Story” movies. About working with Newman, Sperling says, “We had a short but thrilling collaboration. We did a concert together in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to benefit the musicians of the Louisiana Philharmonic Orchestra. Members of that orchestra joined members of the New York Philharmonic at Lincoln Center. I was asked to conduct one of Newman’s songs, “Louisiana 1927.” The recording is called ‘Our New Orleans: A Benefit Album for the Gulf Coast.’ The experience was very moving.”

The Covid-19 pandemic has been brutal for Broadway, shutting down live performances for over a year. Sperling adapted by focusing on his chorale group MasterVoices, using streaming technology to work with artists from all over the world. “We’ve created a series called ‘Myths and Hymns,’ which is a collection of 24 songs written by Adam Guettel. It has a great range of styles with many big stars and is a fun project very easily watched on YouTube. I purposefully designed it in 20-minute chapters, which are a more digestible length. Next week we’ll release them as individual songs. We have a website, mastervoices.org, with links to the chapters,” he says.

Sperling is currently looking forward to his first performance this summer at Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah, New York. “It’s a Sondheim celebration that was supposed to happen a year ago. And at the end of August we’ll put together tours of “My Fair Lady” and “Fiddler on the Roof.”

Sperling says that he’s delighted to be back in Norfolk. “I have fond memories of my summers here as a college kid. I’ve so enjoyed meeting everyone. I find the town very welcoming. I can’t wait for music to start up again. I’m excited to hear music at Infinity Hall and Yale, and I hope I can eventually bring some of my own music to town.”