“Northwest Indiana has been my artistic home for the past 22 seasons. Thank you for welcoming this Canadian musician into your lives. I hope I have contributed something of quality, beauty, and joy to yours.”
Maestro Kirk Muspratt
Kirk Muspratt, Music Director/Conductor, begins his 22nd season as Music Director of the Northwest Indiana Symphony. In his first 21 seasons, Kirk has instituted several highly commended programs that include a popular solo competition for children that results in a child performing at Symphony concerts. He was instrumental in founding the South Shore Summer Music Festival. To involve the community, Kirk created Just Ask Kirk™ cards for audience questions, and a Kirkature™ cartoon to help advocate the credo: Symphonic music is for everyone.
Recognition
Kirk recently received the 2020 Programming of the Year Award as well as the 2018 Conductor of the Year award from the Illinois Council of Orchestras. He was also named “Chicagoan of the Year” in classical music by John von Rhein and the staff of the Chicago Tribune. In honoring Muspratt, von Rhein said, “Ask the delighted adults and kids who this year flocked to his concerts…They will tell you he made concert going an interactive experience that was both enlightening and—are you ready?—fun.”
Recognized as one of the outstanding figures in the new generation of conductors, Kirk Muspratt has garnered international critical acclaim and was hailed as “a knowledgeable musician who delivers superbly controlled, gorgeously shaped readings” (St. Louis Post-Dispatch), and the Los Angeles Times declared, “Watch him!”
Conducting all over the nation
In July 2004, Kirk was named music director of New Philharmonic and artistic director/music director of DuPage Opera Theatre (now New Philharmonic Opera). He served as Resident Conductor to Lorin Maazel at the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (1991–1996), was appointed as Associate Conductor to Joseph Silverstein at the Utah Symphony Orchestra (1990–1992) and served both as Assistant Conductor to Leonard Slatkin at the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the St. Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra (1987–1990). Kirk was Music Director of the Alberta Ballet (1997–1999), served as a Cover Conductor at the New York Philharmonic, and guest conducted the orchestras of Los Angeles, Montreal, London, Korean Broadcast Symphony, and many more around the United States and Canada. In 2018, Kirk made his debut conducting appearance with the Joffrey Ballet.
Kirk was Assistant Conductor in the opera houses of Monchengladbach/Krefeld, Germany (1985–1987). His American opera conducting debut came with the Utah Opera in 1991, and he has conducted for the Calgary Opera, Utah Opera, Arizona Opera and Opera Illinois.
Teaching
As a teacher, Kirk taught graduate conducting master classes at Illinois State University and judged the Concerto Competition at Northwestern University. He has previously taught at the Conductors’ Institute of the University of South Carolina, Conductors’ Guild National Workshops, Association of Canadian Orchestras National Conference, the Conductors’ Studio at Illinois State University and Westminster Choir College in Princeton. During the summer, he has taught at the Northwestern University seminar for singers, the SAI National Convention, and graduate conducting classes at VanderCook College of Music. Kirk recently completed a six-year tenure on the Board of Directors of the Conductors’ Guild.
Biography
Kirk is a native of Crowsnest Pass, Alberta, Canada. His early training was as a pianist. After leaving Alberta, he studied in St. Louis and New York with Harold Zabrack. Kirk continued in both a bachelor’s and master’s programs at Temple University with Adele Marcus and Alexander Fiorillo. He went on to study conducting at the Vienna Conservatory of Music. Kirk became a citizen of the United States in November, 2010.