Jim Beckel's music strives to be accessible to American audiences.  His music is largely tonal and programmatic in nature.  Much of the music Beckel has written was requested by conductors or program directors to fill an empty "niche" in symphonic programming.  For example, he has been asked to write an orchestral fanfare for Christmas concerts. He received a grant to write a children's piece called Waltz of the Animals.  For the conductor who is tired of programming the same old "Carnival of the Animals" or "Young Person's Guide", this piece fills a real need.

Jim was also asked to write a horn concerto which is programmatic in nature and should become standard solo fare for the horn on subscription concerts, chamber concerts and recitals.  The piano reduction of this work is published by Hal Leonard Music.

He has thus far primarily written for orchestra, band and brass chamber groups. 

As a listener, perhaps the best thing about Jim's music is his rich orchestration.  He has been sitting in the middle of an orchestra for most of his career as a performer, so he has a great sense of effective orchestration.

His more recent works were composed with the aid of Finale, so scores and parts for most of his works are of professional published quality. 

Please take some time to read about Jim's works.  If you are a conductor or music librarian, and would like more information about performing these works, use the contact information to get in touch with the composer.

Several documents within these pages are in Acrobat format.  Load free software for viewing Acrobat  documents at the Adobe website by clicking on this link.