Speight Jenkins Jr (born January 31, 1937) is the general director of Seattle Opera. Jenkins, a native of Dallas, Texas, is the son of Speight Jenkins Sr and Sara Baird Jenkins.[1] [2] His B.A. degree is from the University of Texas at Austin, and he graduated in 1961 from Columbia Law School. He served in the US Army, and later became a music critic and journalist. He worked for seven years at Opera News as its news and reports editor, and later at the New York Post from 1973 to 1981 as music critic.[3] He has been a host for U.S. television's Live from the Metropolitan Opera.[4]
In the early 1980s, Jenkins was a guest lecturer at Seattle Opera for the company's production of Richard Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen. His knowledge impressed the Seattle Opera board of trustees such that they offered him the post of general director of the company.[5] He began his tenure with Seattle Opera as general director in 1983, and in 2003, signed a 10-year extension to his contract.[6]
Jenkins has released an art book, Pelleas + Melisande + Chihuly, and narrated a 4-CD commentary called "Enjoying Wagner's Ring of the Nibelung with Speight Jenkins".
Jenkins and his wife, the former Linda Sands, have two children, Linda Leonie Jenkins and Speight Jenkins III.[6] His daughter, Linle, married James Froeb in 1998, and they have three daughters.
In 2011 he won an Opera Honor from the National Endowment for the Arts.[7]