BODY IN MOTION: Jeff Beal and LA Chamber Orchestra Release New Album

The Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra (LACO) and five-time Emmy Award-winning composer Jeff Beal announce the release of Body in Motion, a new album featuring LACO, led by Leonard Slaktin, performing Beal's violin concerto of the same name, with violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, and Four Score, composed in honor of Slaktin's 80th birthday. The works were recorded in Dolby Atmos at the Sony Pictures soundstage in Los Angeles in 2025. Distributed by Platoon, Body in Motion will be released globally on all streaming platforms on August 7.

The first single, “Running” from Body in Motion, is now available. Please click here to listen.

The second single, “The Lovers,” from Four Score will be available on July 24.

The third single, “The Jester,” from Four Score will be available on July 31. 

This collaboration celebrates the enduring friendship and creative partnership between LACO and Jeff Beal, which began with the composer conducting his score to the Buster Keaton classic “The General” in  2017, and marks LACO's first album release since 2019.

In the 2024/25 season, LACO premiered Beal's Concerto for Two Trumpets, a work commissioned by LACO, and performed Beal's violin concerto, Body in Motion, with soloist Kelly Hall-Tompkins. In September 2025, LACO and Beal presented Music + The Body, a free community day of music and wellness that featured Beal performing his own The New York Etudes, Leonard Slatkin leading Body in Motion, again with Hall-Tompkins, and Slatkin leading the world premiere of Beal's symphony Four Score, composed in honor of the conductor's 80th birthday.

“This project is deeply personal to me. My collaboration with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra has been very meaningful and creatively rewarding, and there is a real sense of trust and musical understanding between us,” said Beal. “Body in Motion also brings together friends and collaborators I deeply admire, Leonard Slatkin and Kelly Hall-Tompkins, and I'm thrilled to share these works in a recording that captures the energy, intimacy and spirit of performing together.”

“We are thrilled that our first recording since the pandemic is with our longtime friend and collaborator Jeff Beal,” said Ben Cadwallader, Executive Director of LACO. “Body in Motion features two new works we had the privilege of premiering during our regular season, and it is especially meaningful to share this recording with audiences beyond the concert hall as we continue to deepen our commitment to recording and sharing new music with wider audiences.”

Body in Motion leads with Beal's violin concerto, Body in Motion, inspired by the constant, fluid motion of water and the imagery of the “orchestra and soloist as active natural forces.” The three movements encapsulate contrasting motion: “Head Above Water” evokes a swimmer, or soloist, bobbing above turbulent waters. “Breathing” reflects the slow, deliberate persistence of life, and “Running” is an all out romp. “Here the violin is a jazz soloist, soaring in the sky and skating across a bed of syncopations and counter rhythms from the orchestra,” said Beal. The concerto was written for the gifted violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, named a “New Yorker of the Year” by The New York Times, as the founder of Music Kitchen-Food for the Soul, a program which brings classical music to the unhoused. Beal describes her as a “passionate performer, who seems to never wish to sit still artistically, nor shy away from intense effort.”

Beal and Hall-Tompkins are both graduates of the Eastman School of Music, and met as fellow honorees at the school's Centennial Awards in 2022. That evening they found themselves planning a collaboration, which took shape once they returned to New York City. Body in Motion was premiered by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra, conducted by maestro Leonard Slatkin, a friend of Beal's and champion of his music, to a sold out and enthusiastic audience in January 2024.

Of that performance, Chris King of the St. Louis American wrote “the world premiere was a treat even by the rarified standards of world premieres. Body in Motion calls for virtuoso violin playing—its violin solos explore the history of music, and Hall-Tompkins proved a masterful teller of those stories.” Benjamin Torbert of KDHX commented that “Audiences will often adjust gingerly into standing ovation; Hall-Tompkins drew instantaneously upright bodies in motion. The piece and the performance were fantastic.”

Four Score is a concerto for orchestra written in honor of maestro Leonard Slatkin's 80th birthday. Beal wanted to compose a symphonic work which celebrated their shared roots in Los Angeles and film music. Leonard's parents, Eleanor Aller and Felix Slatkin, were founding members of the Hollywood String Quartet, as well as principal cellist and concertmaster at both Warner Brothers and Fox studios. Beal's career includes many unique and diverse compositions written for the screen, including his lauded scores for Ed Harris' film Pollock, the ground breaking dramatic HBO series Rome and comedy television series such as Monk, Ugly Betty, House of Cards and Peacock's thriller All Her Fault.

Beal wondered “what would a concert piece sound like, where I feel free, even perhaps emboldened to use some of the musical language I have employed in my 30 years writing for the screen?” Beal is a composer who does not find a divide of high or low art in his practice. “I've never really liked or understood silos in art. I consider myself fortunate to have composed for both the screen and concert stage. “

The movements of Four Score are musical studies of three particular narrative archetypes often found in film. “The Hero” channels a bit of the bravura of John Williams' and Jerry Goldsmith's rich adventure scores, and is intended to inspire and thrill. “The Lovers” explores the theme of romance and longing, beginning with solos for the first violin and cello, which is a direct nod to Slatkin's parents Eleanor and Felix. Finally, “The Jester” delights in comedic surprise, careening through mazes of syncopation, ending in a joyous coda in a 7 meter. Beal notes that these three movements seemed to reflect aspects of his friend Leonard's engaging personality. Recording this work in Hollywood, with the brilliant musicians of Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, many of whom recorded on Beal's scores over the years, was a celebratory homecoming.

Award-winning composer Jeff Beal's career spans several decades with an oeuvre that includes hundreds of works for the screen and stage. Following in the tradition of great American composers such as Copland, Gershwin and Bernstein, his works are influenced by his roots as a jazz trumpeter, and incorporate a sophistication that has made him the favorite of outstanding directors of both dramas and documentaries. Early recognition in his career began in his native California, where he composed for films and television shows, notably including Pollock, Monk, and House of Cards. His outstanding work in this field was recognised with five Emmys , an SCL Ambassador and Jury Award, and three HMMAs.

His compositions for the concert hall have taken many forms, from symphonic to song-cycles, from ballet to works for solo piano. An official Steinway Artist, the composer also maintains an active performing and recording career, playing his compositions on the piano, trumpet or flugelhorn as well as conducting. Currently based in New York City, Jeff credits his daily work as a composer and musician with helping to improve his quality of life, as he continues his health journey with MS. Some of his most recent works include the score for the award-winning Peacock thriller All Her Fault, the premiere of the chorale work The Beatitudes at Walt Disney Concert Hall, New York Etudes, Volume II (recording and concerts), and the new score to Fritz Lang's 1923 film Metropolis (world premiere in Prague in 2026).

Whether for the concert hall or the screen, throughout his career, Beal has often engaged with works that hold deeper significance and deal with the issues of our time, ranging from environmental conservation to women's rights. Many of his scores have been released as recordings, leading to an extensive catalog that spans several decades.

LOS ANGELES CHAMBER ORCHESTRA (LACO) ranks among the world's top musical ensembles. Beloved by audiences and praised by critics, the Orchestra is a preeminent interpreter of historical masterworks and, with eight ASCAP Awards for Adventurous Programming, a champion of contemporary composers. Headquartered in the heart of the country's cultural capital, LACO has been proclaimed “America's finest chamber orchestra” (Public Radio International), “LA's most unintimidating chamber music experience” (Los Angeles magazine), “resplendent” (Los Angeles Times), and “one of the world's great chamber orchestras"(KUSC Classical FM). Performing throughout greater Los Angeles, the Orchestra has made 32 recordings, including, most recently, a 2019 BIS Records release of works for violin and chamber orchestra that features Concertmaster Margaret Batjer and the world premiere recording of Pierre Jalbert's Violin Concerto (a LACO co-commission). LACO has toured Europe, South America and Japan, and performed across North America. www.laco.org.

Need more Santa Barbara Theatre News in your life?
Sign up for all the news on the Summer season, discounts & more...