Jeff Beal

Fast Facts

• Four-time Emmy Award winner, with 15 Emmy nominations, including honors for his acclaimed score and theme for Netflix’s House of Cards
• Composer of celebrated scores for major television and film projects, including HBO’s Rome and Carnivàle, and the documentaries Blackfish and The Queen of Versailles
• Orchestral works performed by the St. Louis, Rochester, Detroit, Munich, and Pacific symphonies; commissions span orchestras, chamber ensembles, choirs, and dance companies
• Co-founded The Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media at the Eastman School of Music with a $2 million gift

Jeff Beal is a composer with a genre-defying musical fluidity. His film scores have received critical acclaim, while he remains a respected composer in the concert, theater and dance worlds.

Beal’s evocative score and theme for the Netflix drama House of Cards received four Emmy Award nominations, and recently won for outstanding score, bringing Beal’s Emmy tally to fifteen nominations and four statues. Other lauded series include HBO’s Carnivale and Rome. Film scores feature the documentaries Blackfish and Queen of Versailles and dramas Pollock and Appaloosa.

Beal’s orchestral works have been performed by the St. Louis, Rochester, Pacific, Munich, and Detroit symphony orchestras. Commissions include works for the Metropole Orchestra, The Ying Quartet, Brooklyn Youth Chorus, Henry Mancini Institute, Prism Brass Quintet, Smuin Ballet, and grammy winner Jason Vieaux. His first choral commission, The Salvage Men, was written for the Los Angeles Master Chorale and the Eric Whitacre Singers. Music for theater includes 2015 the World Science Festival production Light Falls.

Born and raised in the San Fransisco Bay Area, Beal’s grandmother was a pianist who performed on the radio and as accompanist for silent movies. Beal graduated from the Eastman School of Music where he and his wife, Joan, recently donated $2 million to the creation of The Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media.