Emmy-winning composer Jeff Beal (“House of Cards”) and his wife Joan have donated $2 million to the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra to fund original works for the concert hall by film, TV and game composers.
LACO executive director Ben Cadwallader announced the gift at a private event Sunday at the Steinway Piano Gallery in Beverly Hills attended by LACO executives, music director Jaime Martín, and members of the L.A. music community.
Cadwallader said that they are hoping to match the Beal gift with other donations to create a $4 million endowment fund, and that they have already received a pair of “six-figure” gifts by interested donors.
Related Stories
“There is an awkward, odd disconnect between the concert stage and the composers of Hollywood, and the music they create,” Beal said. “This is an effort to give back, to support a wonderful orchestra of folks who’ve played on our scores for years, and try and influence the conversation around the concert stage and the deep pool of brilliant composers in Los Angeles and beyond.”
Popular on Variety
Cadwallader pointed out that most of LACO’s musicians primarily earn their living playing on film and TV scores in the L.A. studios, and that this initiative — having their usual employers, the composers, create new works for the concert stage — will help to bring these two worlds together.
The initial three composers commissioned by the “Joan and Jeff Beal Fund for Living Composers” are Michael Abels (“Get Out”), who is expected to write a concerto for orchestra for the 2025-26 season; Irish conductor-composer Eímear Noone (“World of Warcraft” video game), a flute concerto for the 2026-27 season; and Austin Wintory (“Journey” video game), a new work still to be determined.
Joan Beal, a renowned soprano who has sung on dozens of projects from “House of Cards” to “Deadpool 2,” spoke about the dozens of media composers “who understand storytelling. They don’t need a film to tell stories. What if we bring them to the concert hall? Why not give them wings?”
LACO senior development officer David Coscia added that the Beal gift “will not only provide our patrons here in Los Angeles with the thrill of being among the first to discover the classical works from established and emerging composers actively working in the entertainment industry, but these newly commissioned pieces will then become available for chamber orchestras and audiences across the globe.”
This is not the couple’s first philanthropic gift to the film-music community. In 2016 they donated $2 million to their alma mater, the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, N.Y., to create the Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media.
The composer’s many scores include “Pollock,” “Appaloosa” and “Blackfish” for the big screen, and “Rome,” “Ugly Betty” and “Monk” for TV.
Beal, along with violinist Tereza Stanislav and cellist Andrew Shulman, played two of Beal’s recent piano-trio pieces for those in attendance. LACO performed Beal’s violin concerto, “Body in Motion,” in two West Coast-premiere concerts, Saturday in Glendale and Sunday afternoon at the Wallis in Beverly Hills.
