- published: 18 Apr 2013
- views: 6339
Ted Sperling is a Musical Director, conductor, orchestrator, arranger, stage director and musician, primarily for the stage and concerts. He won the Tony Award for Best Orchestrations and the Drama Desk Award, Outstanding Orchestrations, for his work in The Light in the Piazza in 2005.
Sperling was born in Manhattan and started taking violin lessons at age 5, studied at Juilliard School starting at age 16, and graduated from Yale University, Phi Beta Kappa, summa cum laude at the age of 21.
Sperling has been the musical director, conductor, stage director and/or arranger for such Broadway musicals as the revival of South Pacific (2008) and The Light in the Piazza (2005), and for some ten Off-Broadway musicals, starting with Gus and Al in 1989 through Striking 12 in 2006. He appeared on-stage in the musical Titanic (1997) as a performer and one of the on-stage trio of musicians. He began stage directing in regional theatre in 2001, and then directed the musical See What I Wanna See, both regionally and off-Broadway, in 2004 and 2005.
Robert Matthew Van Winkle (born October 31, 1967), best known by his stage name Vanilla Ice, is an American rapper. Born in South Dallas, and raised in Texas and South Florida, Van Winkle released his debut album, Hooked, in 1989 through Ichiban Records, before signing a contract with SBK Records, a record label of the EMI Group which released a reformatted version of the album under the title To the Extreme. Van Winkle's single "Ice Ice Baby" was the first hip hop single to top the Billboard charts.
Although Van Winkle was successful, he later regretted his business arrangements with SBK, which had paid him to adopt a more commercial appearance to appeal to a mass audience and published fabricated biographical information without his knowledge. After surviving a suicide attempt, Van Winkle was inspired to change his musical style and lifestyle. While later albums by Van Winkle haven't charted or featured much radio airplay because of their less mainstream, rock-oriented sound, Vanilla Ice has had a loyal underground following. In 2009, Van Winkle began hosting The Vanilla Ice Project on DIY Network. His latest album WTF – Wisdom, Tenacity & Focus was released in August 2011. Van Winkle is currently signed to Psychopathic Records.