‘House of Cards’ and ‘Monk’ Composer Jeff Beal Premieres New Work for Guitar and String Quartet

Jeff Beal, an award-winning composer that has scored music for House of Cards, Blackfish, and Monk, will premiere his latest work Six Sixteen—for guitar and a string quartet—at the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington in Kentucky on August 28.

The fest welcomes classical guitarist Jason Vieaux, who graced the cover of CG’s Summer issue, as the inaugural David P. Reynolds Visiting Artist. Beal says he kept Vieaux in mind while composing Six Sixteen—a piece he says that he named for the number of strings being played: six on the guitar and 16 by the quartet.

“The first thing you think is, ‘I don’t have to limit myself,’” Beal told Kentucky.com over the phone from his home in Southern California. “When you have world-class musicians, you want to play with that.

“Music is storytelling,” he added, “and having worked in film has really honed my skills at storytelling.”

The festival runs from August 26-30. To view the full schedule and its programming, click here.