JEFF BEAL
About Jeff
Jeff is a native Californian, where he found early success composing jazz and concert works, and later music for film and television. He often conducts larger ensembles, as well as performing his compositions on trumpet and piano.
jeff’s work
A prolific composer, he has been recognized with multiple international awards, including five Emmys. Whether composing for the concert hall or screen, Beal engages with subject matter that holds deeper significance and deals with the issues of our time, ranging from environmental conservation to human rights.
mentorship
Beal understands the importance of education, and has established a media music program at his alma mater, the Eastman School of Music. He is a frequent guest lecturer and performer at many film music festivals and universities, and has on online series where he shares his insights, “How to Compose: Notes on Composition.”
JEFF BEAL
Award-winning composer Jeff Beal’s career spans several decades with an oeuvre that includes hundreds of works for the screen and stage. Following in the tradition of great American composers such as Copland, Gershwin and Bernstein, his works are influenced by his roots as a jazz trumpeter, and incorporate a sophistication that has made him the favorite of outstanding directors of both dramas and documentaries.
Early recognition in his career began in his native California, where he composed for films and television shows, notably including Pollock, Monk, and House of Cards. His outstanding work in this field was recognised with five Emmys ®, an SCL Ambassador and Jury Award, and three HMMAs.
His compositions for the concert hall have taken many forms, from symphonic to song-cycles, from ballet to works for solo piano. An official Steinway Artist, the composer also maintains an active performing and recording career, playing his compositions on the piano, trumpet or flugelhorn as well as conducting. Currently based in New York City, Jeff credits his daily work as a composer and musician with helping to improve his quality of life, as he continues his health journey with MS. Some of his most recent works include the score for the award-winning Peacock thriller All Her Fault, the premiere of the chorale work The Beatitudes at Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York Études, Volume II (recording and concerts), and the new score to Fritz Lang’s 1923 film Metropolis. Whether for the concert hall or the screen, throughout his career, Beal has often engaged with works that hold deeper significance and deal with the issues of our time, ranging from environmental conservation to women’s rights.
Recent commissioned works for the concert hall include The Paper-Lined Shack for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and soprano Hila Plitmann, Sunrise for The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Flute Concerto for Sharon Bezaly/Minnesota Orchestra, and the violin concerto Body in Motion. For the ballet, he has collaborated with choreographers Helen Pickett, Claudia Schreier, and Jacqulyn Buglisi, creating new works. His symphonic works include Four Score and The Great Circle. He has composed concerti for guitar, trumpet, clarinet, jazz bass, and marimba. His vocal works include the song cycle Three Scenes from Brenda Euland for soprano and piano, Earth Requiem for chorus, The Salvage Men for mixed chorus, Beneath Thin Blanket for men’s chorus, and Firebrand and the First Lady. His musical collaborators include Time for Three, Jason Vieaux, Rachel Willis-Sørensen, the Brooklyn Youth Chorus, and John Patitucci. He is currently composing his first opera. Beal can be seen conducting his works, with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, Boston Pops Esplanade the National Symphony Orchestra, at institutions such as the Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony Hall, and the Kennedy Center. Beal recently made his Carnegie Hall debut leading the Silver Nitrate Big Band and Fourth Wall in a concert of his score to The Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari - presented as a part of Carnegie Hall’s 2024 Weimar Festival.
Beal’s distinguished film career has resulted in over 150 scores. He has collaborated with Hollywood’s leading directors, notably Ed Harris (Pollock and Appaloosa), Oliver Stone (JFK Revisited, The Putin Interviews), Lauren Greenfeld (The Queen of Versailles, Generation Wealth) and Rob Reiner (Shock and Awe). His dramatic scores can be heard on HBO’s Rome, Ugly Betty, Carnivàle, The Newsroom, Monk, Netflix’s House of Cards, and AppleTV+’s Raymond & Ray, among others, cementing his reputation as one of the most distinctive and recognizable composers working today. His score, along with the song “We Believe in Hope” from Rule Breakers (which he co-wrote with Joan Beal and Aryana Sayeed), was recognized by the United Nations on July 12, 2025 for International Day of Hope and received the High Note Global Prize.
Many of his scores have been released as recordings, leading to an extensive catalog that spans several decades. Recent releases include the score for All Her Fault, Pictures at an Exhibition - The Paintings of Bob Peak (a collection of works by multiple composers, celebrating the artist Bob Peak), and the soundtrack for Can You Hear Me?. His recent release of the New York Études, Volume I, a collection of piano études inspired by the composer’s life experiences in New York City, was streamed over 7 million times on Apple Music alone. This was followed with the release of New York Études, Volume II, in 2026. His recording of the main title theme for House of Cards remains a popular item in his catalogue with over 13 million streams on Spotify.
Born and raised in the San Francisco Bay Area, Beal’s initial music influence was his grandmother, a pianist and accompanist for silent movies. An avid jazz fan, she gave him Miles Davis’/Gil Evans’ Sketches of Spain album, that would influence his development as a jazz trumpet player and composer. In addition to studying both classical and jazz trumpet, Jeff is a self-taught pianist and spent countless hours in the library learning music theory and composition on his own. Encouraged by conductor Kent Nagano, Jeff composed a trumpet concerto at age 17, which he performed with the Oakland Youth Symphony, as well as a number of large ensemble jazz charts that are still in publication today. At the Eastman School of Music, he studied composition and trumpet, and met his partner and frequent collaborator, vocalist and writer Joan Sapiro Beal. A passionate teacher, he also makes time in his busy schedule to give masterclasses and mentor emerging artists.
Jeff Beal is an official
Steinway Artist
Watch his recent live performance of the New York Études, Volume II, in the Steinway Paris performance space here.