Russ Spiegel

Russ Spiegel is a commissioned composer and arranger as well as a guitarist, bandleader, writer, producer, and actor. He received his Doctor of Musical Arts degree as a Henry Mancini Institute Fellow at the University of Miami, a Master's degree in jazz performance from the City College of New York, and a Bachelor's Degree in philosophy from the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor. Further studies have taken him to the Berklee College of Music in Boston, Oxford University in the United Kingdom, and the Wolfgang von Goethe Universität in Frankfurt, Germany. Originally from Santa Monica, California, Russ relocated to Europe with his family as a teenager, spending close to twenty years in Germany where, after his studies, he concentrated on a career as a jazz musician. Russ returned to the United States in 2001, settling in New York City where his work as a musician has continued to flourish. Alongside composing and arranging, Russ has continued to busy himself with a variety of projects. Playing everything from solo jazz guitar to running a 20-piece jazz orchestra featuring his own compositions and arrangements, Russ has released several CDs, written music for film, TV and musicals, toured Europe and Asia, taught college-level courses, run workshops and seminars, worked as a music copyist for Broadway shows and major-label recordings as well as having appeared in a number of feature films and television shows as both a musician and actor.