kyle beard

Kyle Beard is a versatile musician who participates in a wide range of musical activities within the Bay Area. He is currently the clarinetist with The New Counterpoint Project: a trio comprised of clarinet, violin, and marimba that commissions and performs new works exploring both the unique sonority of the ensemble and the marriage between the traditional and the modern in classical music. This ensemble is currently preparing to make their debut in Spring 2011.

As a current student at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, Mr. Beard participates in the SFCM Orchestra, as well as various orchestral and chamber projects that take place throughout the academic year. As a freelancer, he has performed in a number of musical productions, both in the Bay Area and his former home of Baltimore, Maryland.

An enthusiastic and dedicated teacher, he has spent the past year coaching and mentoring students at the Presidio Middle School in San Francisco through the Conservatory in the Schools program, in addition to having been involved in the past in the mentoring of beginning students at the Keene Middle School in his hometown of Keene, New Hampshire. He has also worked with private students in the Baltimore Metro area.

Mr. Beard is currently studying with Luis Baez at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music, where he will earn his Master’s degree in the spring of 2011. He previously attended the Peabody Institute, where he earned his Bachelor’s degree as a student of Steven Barta. His other principal teacher is Michael Sussman, professor of clarinet at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. He attended the Aspen Music Festival and School in the summer of 2008, where he studied with Theodore Oien, and performed in each of the four orchestras at the Festival.