Spencer Blank, Jazz Piano

If you are looking to enliven your special event with fun, familiar and beautiful tunes played as solo instrumental arrangements, I'm your guy. My repertoire adds class, charm, and festivity to any event.

Ideal scenarios: Company Parties, Holiday Parties, Mingling Receptions, Cocktail Parties, Weddings, Funerals/Memorial Services, Concerts, Etc.

Spencer Blank is an arts administrator, pianist, vocal coach, and conductor with 15+ years experience in opera companies, jazz and cabaret lounges, and musical theatre shows from San Francisco to New York and Europe. Most recently, while serving as the Director of Artistic Administration & Operations for the Memphis Symphony Orchestra, he played and coached for Opera Memphis and all of the local theatres. Before coming to Memphis, Spencer was the Music Director of the Department of Theatre & Dance at UT-Austin, while pursuing a Master of Music degree in Opera Coaching and Arts Administration. He was honored by the Austin Theatre Circle's B. Iden Payne Awards as a Best Musical Director nominee for 4 consecutive productions at UT-Austin, including In the Heights, Esperanza Rising, and a world premiere musical/opera called Pirandello presented at the Cohen New Works Festival.

Spencer was formerly at Opera Memphis as Resident Music Director and Chorus Master of L’elisir d’amore, The Rape of Lucretia, This is the Rill Speaking, and Bon Appetit! among a host of recitals and cabarets for the inaugural Midtown Opera Festival; he also assumed the role of Music Director and Conductor at the Opera Breve Vocal Intensive in Wichita Falls, TX for productions of Hotel Casablanca and an all-Sondheim program, and played for the Kaleidoscope Recital Series at Des Moines Metro Opera. Last season, he debuted as Assistant Conductor and Studio Coach/Pianist for Kentucky Opera for Cendrillon, Tosca, and The Prodigal Son, Opera New Jersey for Il trovatore and opera scenes, and North Carolina Opera for Les Enfants Terribles. Chorus master and coach of the young artist program at the Castleton Festival, Spencer had the opportunity to work under Maestro Lorin Maazel on his farm producing La bohéme, L’enfant et les sortileges, opera scenes, and musical theatre cabarets. In Europe, he served on the music staffs of Centro Studi Italiani Opera Festival in Urbania, Italia and the American Institute of Musical Studies in Graz, Austria.

In New York City, Spencer has played cabarets at the Duplex Lounge, Hansel & Gretel with Opera Manhattan, La bohéme with The Martha Cardona Theatre, and held a coaching studio with both opera and musical theatre singers. In Washington, DC, he played and coached for The Catholic University of America Musical Theatre and Opera (Candide, L’elisir d’amore), The Washington Savoyards (Pirates of Penzance), Signature Theatre (Myths & Hymns), and conducted for OperAlterna (Dido & Aeneas). He has also been a guest artist at the University of Memphis, Rhodes College, University of Louisville, NYU, St. Mary’s College (CA), Santa Clara University, Georgetown, and American University (DC). He began his career as a young opera coach and pianist at Seagle Music Colony, Brevard Music Center, and the University of Oregon.

Lighting: medium bright to read sheet music

Piano: Grand or Baby Grand preferred

If using electronic keyboard: 88 weighted keys, external amplification, sustain pedal, music stand