Jeremy Beck

Jeremy Joseph Beck was born January 15, 1960, in Painesville, Ohio. His father, Albert William Beck (b. April 4, 1931, in Scranton, Pennsylvania; d. May 16, 2018 in Quincy, Illinois), known as "Al", was a visual artist and poet who taught for many years at Culver-Stockton College in Canton, Missouri.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/whig/obituary.aspx?n=albert-william-beck&pid=189059147|title=Albert William Beck (obituary)|publisher=Quincy Herald-Whig|date=20 May 2018|accessdate=10 January 2019}} His mother, Mila Katrine Aho (b. June 24, 1935, Painesville, Ohio; d. March 26, 2018 in Memphis, Tennessee), known as "Katrine", was a pianist and organist who taught music privately.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/commercialappeal/obituary.aspx?n=mila-katrine-aho&pid=188588972|title=Mila Katrine Aho (obituary)|publisher=The Commercial Appeal|date=29 March 2018|accessdate=10 January 2019}} Beck's parents married in 1958, but not without some controversy: the Beck family was Jewish{{cite web|url=https://hsp.org/sites/default/files/legacy_files/migrated/findingaid3083beck.pdf|title=Joseph E. Beck Papers|publisher=The Historical Society of Pennsylvania|date=November 2006|accessdate=10 January 2019}} and the Aho family was Lutheran.{{cite web|url=http://finnishheritagemuseum.org/HallofFame/2013/index.html#Aho|title=Rev. Dr. Gustav Axel Aho|publisher=Finnish Heritage Museum|date=2013|accessdate=10 January 2019|archive-date=12 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160712221140/http://www.finnishheritagemuseum.org/HallofFame/2013/index.html#Aho|url-status=dead}} Albert's parents agreed to support the wedding as long as the Ahos knew they were Jewish. Katrine's parents agreed to support the wedding only if Katrine's father – Gustav Axel Aho, also known as "G.A. Aho", a Lutheran minister – performed the ceremony in his own church.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/commercialappeal/obituary.aspx?n=mila-katrine-aho&pid=188588972|title=Mila Katrine Aho (obituary)|publisher=The Commercial Appeal|date=29 March 2018|accessdate=10 January 2019}} Under those conditions, the nuptials took place.

The family lived briefly in and around Cleveland, Ohio, before moving to Kansas City for a year, 1967–68, where Al served as dean of students at the Kansas City Art Institute.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/whig/obituary.aspx?n=albert-william-beck&pid=189059147|title=Albert William Beck (obituary)|publisher=Quincy Herald-Whig|date=20 May 2018|accessdate=10 January 2019}} The family then settled in Quincy, Illinois. Beck's parents were divorced in 1977.{{cite web|url=https://www.legacy.com/obituaries/whig/obituary.aspx?n=albert-william-beck&pid=189059147|title=Albert William Beck (obituary)|publisher=Quincy Herald-Whig|date=20 May 2018|accessdate=10 January 2019}}

Beck's earliest musical studies were with his mother; he then began playing the cello in the 4th grade in Quincy.{{Cite web|url=http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/arts/KentuckyArt/1310Feature_Beck.htm|title=KY: Kentucky Arts Council - Featured Artist Jeremy Beck|website=www.state.ky.us|access-date=2019-01-11}} While in high school, Beck studied music composition and theory privately with Thom Ritter George, an Eastman graduate and conductor of the Quincy Symphony Orchestra.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whig.com/article/20080411/ARTICLE/304119981|title=Composer introduces new work for 60th season finale|last=|first=|date=2008-04-11|website=Herald-Whig|language=en|access-date=2019-01-11}} Following his graduation from high school in 1978, Beck moved to New York City, earning a B.S. in Composition from the Mannes College of Music where he studied with David Loeb. He later earned a master's degree in composition from Duke University where he studied with Stephen Jaffe and Thomas Oboe Lee. Following his studies at Duke, Beck completed a second master's degree and a doctoral degree in composition at the Yale School of Music, studying with Jacob Druckman, Martin Bresnick, Lukas Foss, and Allen Forte.{{Cite web|url=http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/arts/KentuckyArt/1310Feature_Beck.htm|title=KY: Kentucky Arts Council - Featured Artist Jeremy Beck|website=www.state.ky.us|access-date=2019-01-11}}{{Cite web|url=https://www.whig.com/article/20080411/ARTICLE/304119981|title=Composer introduces new work for 60th season finale|last=|first=|date=2008-04-11|website=Herald-Whig|language=en|access-date=2019-01-11}}

After graduating from Yale, Beck taught music composition and theory at the University of Northern Iowa, earning tenured there in 1998. Beck took a leave of absence from UNI to teach for a year at Chatham College in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. However, instead of returning to Iowa, in 1999, Beck accepted a position as an associate professor of music composition and theory at California State University, Fullerton, where he also earned tenure, in 2002.{{Cite news|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2001-dec-01-et-ocpasles1-story.html|title=Fullerton Hosts Beck's 'Spark' in Its West Coast Premiere|last=PASLES|first=CHRIS|date=2001-12-01|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=2019-01-11|language=en-US|issn=0458-3035}}{{Cite web|url=https://kpan.ky.gov/pages/advisor-profile.aspx?&ArtistID=12|title=Kentucky Peer Advisory Network : Advisor Profile|website=kpan.ky.gov|access-date=2019-01-11}} During his teaching years, Beck was invited to teach and lecture on American music, music theory, and composition around the world, including in St. Petersburg, Russia, and Ghana.{{Cite web|url=http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/arts/KentuckyArt/1310Feature_Beck.htm|title=KY: Kentucky Arts Council - Featured Artist Jeremy Beck|website=www.state.ky.us|access-date=2019-01-11}}

In 2002, Beck accepted a short-term teaching position at the University of Louisville. Following a change in the administration and the loss of his position, Beck decided to pursue a J.D. degree, graduating from the university's Brandeis School of Law in 2007.{{Cite web|url=https://www.whig.com/article/20080411/ARTICLE/304119981|title=Composer introduces new work for 60th season finale|last=|first=|date=2008-04-11|website=Herald-Whig|language=en|access-date=2019-01-11}} In addition to his continuing work in composition, Beck is also a practicing attorney in Louisville, Kentucky.{{cite web|url=https://www.artsattorney.net/|title=How Can An Arts Attorney Help You?|accessdate=29 November 2024}} He blends his music background into his entertainment law practice, with an emphasis on copyright, trademark, and contracts.{{cite web|url=http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2011dltr005|title=Speaking of Music and the Counterpoint of Copyright|author=Jeremy J. Beck and Libby Van Cleve|publisher=Duke Law & Technology Review|date=5 April 2011|accessdate=27 March 2012|archive-date=14 March 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314112351/http://www.law.duke.edu/journals/dltr/articles/2011dltr005|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=https://composersforum.org/sites/composersforum.org/files/OctNovDec2010_0.pdf|title=Composing With Eyes Open: A Discussion of Commissions and Contracts|author=Jeremy J. Beck|publisher=American Composers Forum - Sounding Board|date=October–December 2010|accessdate=5 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150419131635/http://composersforum.org/sites/composersforum.org/files/OctNovDec2010_0.pdf|archive-date=19 April 2015|url-status=dead}}

Beck's Requiem was recorded by Coro Volante and the Cincinnati String Ensemble, directed by Brett Scott, and released by Acis Productions in 2024.{{cite web|url=https://www.acisproductions.com/jeremy-beck-requiem-coro-volante-brett-scott|title=Acis - Jeremy Beck: Requiem|accessdate=29 November 2024}} One critic described this major work as "...harmonically alluring...[with] intriguing contrapuntal techniques...and touching simplicity."{{cite web|url=https://theclassicreview.com/album-reviews/in-short-5-albums-worth-your-listen-august-2024/|title=In Short – 5 Albums Worth Your Listen – August 2024|author=Tal Agam|publisher=The Classic Review|date=15 August 2024|accessdate=29 November 2024}} Donald Rosenberg in Gramophone called it "A piece of tranquil and urgent beauty...An exquisite first recording...Beck often goes against the grain, finding fresh means to convey the weighty or hopeful messages, and turning to lyricism rather than overt drama...Beck achieves an intimate portrait of mourning at once comforting and fervent."{{cite web|url=https://reader.exacteditions.com/issues/117167/spread/3|title=Sounds of America|author=Donald Rosenberg|author-link=Donald Rosenberg|publisher=Gramophone|date=September 2024|accessdate=29 November 2024}}

Released on the neuma label in 2023,{{cite web|url=https://neumarecords.org/home/ols/products/jeremy-beck-remember|title=neuma Recordings - Jeremy Beck|accessdate=29 November 2024}} Beck's seventh recording includes eight diverse compositions for a variety of instrumental and vocal forces. Called "captivating from beginning to end,"{{cite web|url=https://takeeffectreviews.com/july-2024-1/2024/7/13/jeremy-beck|title=Jeremy Beck: remember|publisher=Take Effect|date=13 July 2024|accessdate=29 November 2024}} three of the compositions, Invitation to Love, Elegy for piano and string orchestra,{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aT1XYRqelEU|title=Jeremy Beck : "Elegy" for piano and string orchestra (A.Schnittke Competition 2021)|publisher=KLK New Music|date=17 May 2021|accessdate=29 November 2024}} and November Dances for flute, viola, and harp, were composed during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. Invitation to Love won First Prize in Category 3 (treble choir) of The King’s Singers New Music Prize in 2021.{{cite web|url=https://www.kingssingers.com/news/new-music-prize-winners-announced|title=New Music Prize Winners Announced|date=14 January 2021|accessdate=29 November 2024}} The text is by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872-1906) who was an American poet, novelist, and short story writer. Born in Ohio to freed slaves from Kentucky, he became one of the first influential Black poets in American literature.

"...a sonic revelation. With an impressive range of instrumental and vocal compositions, Beck takes us into a world of emotion and reflection. The compositions, including the award-winning 'Invitation to Love', testify to Beck's extraordinary creative vision and his ability to translate deep feelings into music."{{cite web|url=https://amplified-mag.de/index.php/reviews/klangwelten-verschmelzen-jeremy-becks-meisterwerk-remember-im-fokus|title=Melting sound worlds: Jeremy Beck's masterpiece 'Remember' in focus|publisher=AM:plified|date=October 2023|accessdate=29 November 2024}}

Beck has released six recordings of his music on the innova label.{{cite web|url=https://www.innova.mu/artist/jeremy-beck|title=innova Recordings - Jeremy Beck|accessdate=14 July 2020}} About Beck's most recent release, the music critic Jonathan Woolf declared that Beck "...fashion[s] convincing music from traditional ways and means that sounds alive and relevant. ... [by moonlight] also shows his positive and tonal approach to composition, one that is happily devoid of arid technical or doctrinaire investigations."{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2021/Mar/Beck-moonlight-051.htm|title=Jeremy BECK (b.1960) By Moonlight|author=Jonathan Woolf|publisher=MusicWeb International|date=January 2021|accessdate=5 April 2021}} Another review declared that Beck's compositions are "Luminous, expressive, and refined [and that these] are some of the words that come to mind as the album's tonal pieces play, "by moonlight" deftly showing Beck cultivating an individual voice while operating within a tradition."{{cite web|url=https://www.textura.org/archives/b/beck_bymoonlight.htm|title=Jeremy Beck: by moonlight|publisher=Textura|date=May 2020|accessdate=14 July 2020}}

The critic Donald Rosenberg describes the music on Beck's recording, String Quartets (2013), as "forceful and expressive … concise in structure and generous in tonal language, savouring both the dramatic and the poetic,"{{cite web|url=http://www.exacteditions.com/read/gramophone/december-2013-37645/3/3/|title=Sounds of America|author=Donald Rosenberg|author-link=Donald Rosenberg|publisher=Gramophone|date=December 2013|accessdate=17 February 2014}} while Joshua Kosman of the San Francisco Chronicle states Beck's music is "appealing and skillfully crafted … [with] lush tonal harmonies."{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/ALBUM-REVIEWS-Jeremy-Beck-4924322.php|title=Album Reviews - Jeremy Beck|author=Joshua Kosman|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=24 October 2013|accessdate=17 February 2014}} Kosman further observes that "novelty isn't the only thing music can provide, and the moody expressiveness of Beck's writing is its own reward."{{cite web|url=http://www.sfgate.com/music/article/ALBUM-REVIEWS-Jeremy-Beck-4924322.php|title=Album Reviews - Jeremy Beck|author=Joshua Kosman|publisher=San Francisco Chronicle|date=24 October 2013|accessdate=17 February 2014}}

Beck's 2011 recording, IonSound Project, features the ensemble-in-residence at the University of Pittsburgh.{{cite web|url=http://www.pittsburghcitypaper.ws/gyrobase/Content?oid=oid%3A100396|title=Pittsburgh City Paper|accessdate=20 September 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://innova.mu/albums/jeremy-beck/ionsound-project/|title=IonSound Project|accessdate=26 March 2012}} His music on this recording has been described as "uplifting, buoyant and ... emotional and sensitive to both the performer and the listener."{{cite web|url=http://audaud.com/2011/07/jeremy-beck-works-ionsound-project-innova/|title=Audiofile Audition - Classical CD Reviews|access-date=20 September 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111113071130/http://audaud.com/2011/07/jeremy-beck-works-ionsound-project-innova/|archive-date=13 November 2011}} In addition, critic Andrew Sigler finds Beck's music "rhythmically intricate, and makes nods to the past while sitting squarely in the present. … Though architecturally rigorous, Beck writes clearly and without pretense[.]"{{cite web|url=http://www.newmusicbox.org/articles/sounds-heard-ion-sound-project-and-the-music-of-jeremy-beck/|title=Sounds Heard: Ion Sound Project and the Music of Jeremy Beck|author=Andrew Sigler|publisher=NewMusicBox|date=11 September 2012|accessdate=17 February 2014}}

Beck's third innova recording, Never Final, Never Gone (2008), features a variety of chamber and vocal music.{{cite web|url=http://innova.mu/albums/jeremy-beck/never-final-never-gone/|title=Never Final, Never Gone|accessdate=26 March 2012}}

His second recording, pause and feel and hark, released in May 2006, includes Black Water, a monodrama based on the novel by Joyce Carol Oates.{{cite web|url=http://innova.mu/albums/jeremy-beck/pause-and-feel-and-hark/|title=pause and feel and hark|accessdate=26 March 2012}} Black Water received its Australian concert premiere at the 2012 Adelaide Fringe Festival.{{cite web|url=http://www.abc.net.au/classic/content/2011/09/10/3312060.htm|title=ABC Classic FM|website=Australian Broadcasting Corporation |accessdate=11 October 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://citynews.com.au/2012/arts-entertainment/music/review-black-deep-and-meaningful-music/|title=Review: black, deep and meaningful|author=Helen Musa|publisher=CityNews.com.au|date=13 March 2012|accessdate=26 March 2012}} The stage premiere of this monodrama was produced by the Center for Contemporary Opera at Symphony Space on April 29, 2016, in New York City.{{cite web|url=http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/9231/Music/cco-presents-black-water-and-falling-man|title=Symphony Space- CCO Presents|accessdate=5 May 2016}}

In 2004, Wave – a Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra recording devoted to Beck's music – was released on the Innova label.{{cite web|url=http://innova.mu/albums/jeremy-beck/wave/|title=Wave|accessdate=26 March 2012}} This recording includes his four-movement Sinfonietta for string orchestra, "a harmonically inventive, thoroughly engaging work."{{cite web|url=http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/05009/438271-42.stm|title=Recordings:Classical:Jeremy Beck|author=Andrew Druckenbrod|publisher=Pittsburgh Post-Gazette|date=9 January 2005|accessdate=18 April 2019}} The disc also includes his operatic soliloquy, Death of a Little Girl With Doves, for soprano and orchestra. This "deeply attractive" composition is based on the life and letters of the sculptor Camille Claudel. The recording of this major work was heralded for its "imperious melodic confidence, fluent emotional command and yielding tenderness."{{cite web|url=http://www.musicweb-international.com/classrev/2004/Dec04/beck.htm|title=Jeremy Beck|author=Rob Barnett|publisher=MusicWeb International|accessdate=18 April 2019}}

Beck's short comic opera, Review, with a libretto by Patricia Marx,{{cite web|url=http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8313.html|title=Beck and Marx's Opera, Review, Premieres at CCO Gala Feb. 19|publisher=Playbill Arts|date=16 January 2010|accessdate=27 March 2012}} was one of three finalists in the 2010 National Opera Association's New Chamber Opera Competition. It was performed by Oberlin Opera Theater in February, 2014,{{cite web|url=http://inside.oberlin.edu/toomanynotes/entries/2014-winter-term-opera-sneak-p.shtml|title=2014 Winter Term Opera Sneak Peek|accessdate=17 February 2014}} and twice by Peabody Opera: in October, 2011 in Baltimore,{{cite web|url=http://www.peabodyopera.org/seasons/s1112/|title=Opera at Peabody, Season 2010-2011|accessdate=20 September 2011|archive-date=14 September 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110914055108/http://peabodyopera.org/seasons/s1112/|url-status=usurped}} and in Richmond, Virginia, at the College Music Society's annual convention.{{cite web|url=https://www.youtube.com/user/JeremyBeckComposer|title=YouTube/JeremyBeckComposer|website=YouTube |accessdate=26 March 2012}} Review was previously included in the 2009 Opera America and Houston Grand Opera New Works Sampler. Following that successful showcase, Review was then produced by the Moores Opera Center at the University of Houston{{cite web|url=http://dallasmodernmusic.org/page24/styled-20/index.html|title=Dallas Modern Music|access-date=20 September 2011|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120402171024/http://dallasmodernmusic.org/page24/styled-20/index.html|archive-date=2 April 2012}} and later was given its New York premiere by the Center for Contemporary Opera.{{cite web|url=http://www.jmu.edu/bethechange/stories/opera-review.shtml|title=JMU premieres opera|accessdate=20 September 2011}}

Beck's opera The Biddle Boys and Mrs. Soffel was named by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette as one of the Top Ten Cultural Events in Pittsburgh for the year 2001.{{cite web|url=http://www.post-gazette.com/ae/20011228bestclass1228p4.asp|title=Best Classical of 2001: Andrew Manze and Richard Egarr|author=Andrew Druckenbrod|publisher=Post-Gazette|date=28 December 2001|accessdate=13 June 2011}}

With a libretto by the composer based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, his monodrama Black Water received its stage premiere on April 29, 2016. Produced by the Center for Contemporary Opera, the sold-out production at Symphony Space's Thalia Theater in New York City featured Laura Bohn, soprano, and Isabella Dawis, piano, with music direction by Lidiya Yankovskaya and stage direction by Eugenia Arsenis.{{cite web|url=http://www.symphonyspace.org/event/9231/Music/cco-presents-black-water-and-falling-man|title=Symphony Space- CCO Presents|accessdate=5 May 2016}}

Beck has earned awards, grants and honors from the American Composers Orchestra, California Arts Council, the Los Angeles Chapter of the American Composers Forum, Kentucky Arts Council, Millay Colony for the Arts, Wellesley Composers Conference, Oregon Bach Festival, and the Iowa Arts Council.{{cite web|url=http://www.BeckMusic.org|title=JEREMY BECK - COMPOSER|accessdate=16 October 2012}} In 2021, he was one of four first-place prize winners in The King's Singers New Music Prize competition.{{cite web|url=https://www.kingssingers.com/newmusicprize/|title=New Music Prize - The King's Singers|accessdate=26 January 2021}}

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Category:20th-century American classical composers

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Category:American male opera composers

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Category:Pupils of Lukas Foss

Category:20th-century American male musicians

Category:21st-century American male musicians