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Jeff Beal Residenz: United States of America Offizielle Seite: Jeff Beal official site |
Emmy award winning composer Jeff Beal is a member of a new generation of eclectic composers. He is fluent in the diverse languages of jazz, classical, contemporary, electronic and world music. Beal’s compositions can be heard in movie theaters, concert halls, CD recordings and on television. Steven Schneider (regular contributor to the NY Times) wrote of '...the richness of Beal's musical thinking - the ways in which he conceives of his solos as fully-developed mini compositions, while his compositions often capture the liveliness and unpredictability of the best improvisation.'
As a film composer, Beal scored Ed Harris’ critically acclaimed directorial debut, Pollock. Other scores include director Bob Rafelson’s latest feature No Good Deed, William H. Macy’s acclaimed Door to Door, The Passion of Ayn Rand, From the Earth to the Moon (episode 9), and the theme and underscore for USA’s hit series, Monk, starring Tony Shalhoub. Beal recently completed the score for Tibet: Cry Of The Snow Lion , a documentary initiated by the Dalai Lama, which chronicles the history and religious life of Tibet. The soundtrack will be released in the August of 2003. He is currently collaborating with director Jessica Yu on her feature length documentary, In the Realms of the Unreal. Beal recently received an Emmy award for his score to the NBC Sports division's documentary, Peggy and Dorothy.
Beal’s concert music has been performed by many leading orchestras and conductors, including the St. Louis, Rochester, Pacific, Frankfurt, Munich, and Detroit Symphonies. American conductor Kent Nagano commissioned and premiered two new works, Alternate Route for trumpet and orchestra (Beal as soloist) and Interchange for string quartet and orchestra (with the Turtle Island String Quartet). Turtle Island subsequently performed and recorded Interchange with conductor Neeme Jarvi and the Detroit Symphony for the Chandos label.
Other commissioned works include RedShift-Concerto For Orchestra for the Metropole Orchestra, Wright Suite for clarinetist Eddie Daniels, Clarinet Concerto for Chicago Symphony principal Larry Combs, Three Legged Race for the American Jazz Philharmonic, and Things Unseen for the Ying String Quartet. In 2001 Beal was commissioned by the Corning Corporation to honor their 150th anniversary with a new work for the Prism Brass Quintet. For a recent premiere, Beal composed a full orchestral score to Buster Keaton’s silent masterpiece The General. Future performances are currently being scheduled.
Beal’s seventh solo CD release, Alternate Route (Unitone Recordings) features his trumpet concerto, as well as original works for trumpet and the Metropole Orchestra of the Netherlands, a group with which Beal frequently writes and performs. His other jazz CDs, including Three Graces, Contemplations (Triloka) and Red Shift (Koch Jazz) have received critical notice, and established Beal as a respected recording artist... 'he (Beal) may even develop into the kind of iconoclast who can blast the trumpet into the 21st century with some futuristic new style...' (Downbeat Magazine)
A graduate of the Eastman School of Music, Beal received his first national attention while in college as the recipient of an unprecedented 11 'db' awards from Downbeat Magazine for his recordings as a jazz trumpeter, composer, and arranger. Beal resides in southern California with his wife, soprano Joan Beal and their son, Henry.