Composer Jeff Beal, best known for his work for film, TV, and the concert platform, is a Five-time EMMY® winner. He has written for productions such as House of Cards and Monk, in addition to the feature film Rule Breakers.
He has recently released a new collection of works for solo piano, titled New York Études, Volume 2. The works on the disc represent both a continuation of and an evolution of the works on the first disc, which was released in 2024.
When asked what evolved most in his musical language between the two albums, Beal told us: "I think this time I felt a bit freer to embrace some of my favorite styles of piano music, such as late romantic. Chopin is a pretty big influence on a couple of the études, such as 'Nocturne' and 'Autumn.' I also experimented with some different types of shaping, like in études such as 'New Leaf' and 'Summer Spring,' the main melodic content is played by the left hand, vs. the normal right hand/treble."
Since his diagnosis with multiple sclerosis in 2007, Beal says he has found composing and performing at the piano to be a meditative ritual with a strong impact on his sense of well-being.
"I believe staying active musically the past 19 years has been a huge part of my wellness living with MS," he told us. "When I began to focus on practicing piano during the pandemic, and then eventually began composing the études, I experienced a profound sense of calm and focus. Sitting at the piano for hours working on them or practicing them is something I can get lost in, in a good way.
"MS is a disease of opportunity, stress is a big factor in the exacerbation of symptoms for a lot of us living with MS. Making piano playing and practicing part of my daily routine has really been a powerful way of staying focused and calm. Since piano isn’t my primary instrument, I feel like the benefits of neuro-plasticity, via engaged lifelong learning, are especially useful for me as well."
Having experienced the impact of music on health in their own lives, Jeff and his wife, soprano Joan Sapiro Beal, have donated to fund the collaborative Music and Medicine initiative at the University of Rochester in New York. He is excited about the attention music and healing are "finally" getting from both the musical and neurological communities.
"There is a whole new generation of neurologists who really understand and are documenting what we’ve sensed and enjoyed for millennia," he said. "It feels like we’re at the beginning of a very virtuous cycle, where the more data points we get on studies demonstrating the power of music for wellness, the further people are emboldened to go into this field. As we all know, the arts are in a bit of a crisis now - and an inflection point of audience and funding. This theme is one way in which what we love can have a deep importance and significance for our audience and our fellow humans."
After 30 years spent in California, Jeff currently lives in New York City. He explained that specific routines also impacted the new piano etudes.
"One of my favorite things about being a New Yorker is just how much walking we do as a part of our daily lives in Manhattan," he said. "Often when composing, when I have a few recorded, I’ll just put them on headphones and go for a walk. There’s a tempo to walking somewhere as opposed to driving, which I feel is a big part of this music, the cadence and spontaneity of it. Living next to, in fact, surrounded by water in Manhattan is wonderful. As a person who spent 30 years in the arid West, the prevalence of rain on the East Coast is wonderful - and of course affords the wonderful gardens that bloom in the city. 'River' and 'Summer Spring' both reference that sense of water, & the cycle of rebirth."
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