The 2006-2007 season marks Crafton Beck’s seventh season as Music Director of the Mississippi Symphony Orchestra and his tenth season as Music Director of the Lima Symphony Orchestra in Ohio.

Mr. Beck's immensely busy schedule as guest conductor has included appearances 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 Sacramento Symphony, and the Florida Orchestra.

Around the country critics and presenters alike have embraced Mr. Beck's versatile talents commenting on "his extraordinary variety of styles and moods", and being "unerringly sensitive", conducting with "fierce intensity" and demonstrating an "intimate understanding of the scores and their meaning beyond the notes". His seemingly limitless energy and rare skill with musicians and audiences alike prompted one critic to write, "his enthusiasm exploded propelling the orchestra to outdo their usual brilliant selves. The full house responded with wild applause and several standing ovations". And most recently an Ohio newspaper wrote: "The joy exuded by Crafton Beck as he wonderfully and masterfully tended to his duties as maestro was contagious. The man and his symphony are a beloved legend in this town, and rightfully so. It is rare to see a conductor with so much personal and crowd appeal."

Mr. Beck received a Doctorate in Conducting from the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music in 1987. Previous studies were at the University of Michigan, The Ohio State University, and the Aspen School.

One of Mr. Beck’s most notable assets is his versatility as a performer. In addition to his duties as Music Director, he has been recognized as a sensitive and powerful conductor of ballet, and he served as Music Director of Carnegie Opera Theater in Cincinnati in 1991. His educational concerts for young people have been called "dynamic and extraordinarily creative,” and he has developed a national reputation as a conductor in the pops arena.

In the six year’s Mr. Beck was affiliated 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.