Jeff Beal, celebrated as both a concert composer of affecting chamber and orchestral works as well as a highly-prolific composer for film and television, releases his newest recording project, The Paper Lined Shack, on Supertrain Records.

Comprising two works - the album’s namesake, The Paper Lined Shack for soprano and orchestra, and Things Unseen for string quartet - this album is a deeply personal one for Beal in many respects, representing Beal’s lineage, past and present. The libretto to The Paper Lined Shack was compiled by Joan Beal, utilising texts and images sourced from his great-grandmother’s memoir, composed in her late years. The cycle is performed by two-time Grammy Award-winning soprano Hilá Plitmann with the Eastman Philharmonia conducted by the classical music giant Leonard Slatkin; the world premiere of The Paper Lined Shack took place in 2019 with Plitmann, Slatkin, and the St Louis Symphony Orchestra.

Things Unseen, the second complete work of the album, was originally commissioned by Eastman School of Music’s quartet-in-residence, the Ying Quartet which, at the time of its world premiere, consisted of four siblings. According to Beal, “Each of the four movements unfold as balancing acts of controlled dialog and chaos. Ideas are introduced by one player, developed, morphed, and passed around the room, as in the best of dinner party conversations - perhaps a group of siblings.” The recorded version is performed by the New Hollywood String Quartet (Tereza Stanislav and Rafael Rishik, violins; Robert Brophy, viola; Andrew Shulman, cello).

The album is also indicative of Beal’s many ties to Eastman School of Music, where he is an alumni and the founder of The Beal Institute for Film Music and Contemporary Media.