Maestro Crafton Beck

CRAFTON BECK, Musical Director & Conductor

The 2009-2010 season marks Crafton Beck's thirteenth season as Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio. He also serves as Music Director of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra.

In addition to the Lima Symphony's regularly scheduled concerts, Mr. Beck's many activities include the annual educational full-orchestra concerts for middle schools children throughout the region, and he also shares the stage each year with other Lima Symphony musicians in elementary schools as part of the Lima Symphony's In-School programs. Mr. Beck shares administration duties of the Lima Symphony with his colleague, Executive Director Marie Drum.

In addition to serving as Music Director of the Mississippi Symphony and the Lima Symphony, Mr. Beck also appears as a guest conductor with orchestras across the country and has performed with over thirty American orchestras including the Milwaukee Symphony, the Oregon Symphony, the New World Symphony, the New Mexico Symphony, the Delaware Symphony, the Memphis Symphony, the Arkansas Symphony, the Indianapolis Symphony, the Dayton Philharmonic, the Kansas City Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra.

Mr. Beck earned his undergraduate degree and his Master's degree at The Ohio State University in Columbus, and a Doctorate in Conducting from the Cincinnati College -Conservatory of Music.

In the six years he worked with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, he arranged over fifty selections which have appeared on that orchestra's many recordings. Most of these appeared on the Billboard Classical/Crossover charts for best-selling albums, and two of those albums received Grammy Award nominations.