Northern Illinois University
School of Music
College of Visual and Performing Arts

Gregory Beyer

Professor and Director of Percussion Studies

Fulbright Scholar, composer, educator, and "prodigiously talented percussionist" (Chicago Classical Review), Gregory Beyer is a contemporary music specialist who blends the disciplines of orchestral, jazz, and world music into a singular artistic voice.

He is artistic director of Arcomusical, an organization dedicated to the Afro-Brazilian berimbau. Arcomusical released its first album, MeiaMeia, in 2016 on Innova Recordings and has subsequently appeared on WNYC, WBEZ, and NPR’s Weekend Edition Sunday. Arcomusical received a 2016 Chamber Music America Classical Commissioning Grant to create the twenty-minute, four-movement "Roda" with composer Elliot Cole. "Roda" has received over two dozen performances and most recently was performed as a concerto with the Arizona State University Symphony Orchestra as "Roda Grande." In March 2019 on National Sawdust Tracks, Arcomusical released its second album, Spinning in the Wheel.

Professor Beyer is the director of Percussion Studies where he directs the New Music Ensemble and New Music Festival, the Latin Jazz Ensemble, and co-directs award-winning Percussion Ensemble with his colleague Ben Wahlund. A strong advocate for new music, he is a core member of two Chicago-based new music ensembles: Dal Niente and the Chicago Center for Contemporary Composition Grossman Ensemble.

Beyer has held long-term visiting scholar appointments at universities in China and Brazil. He is capable of developing a rapport with anyone in the world and sees the art of percussion as a vehicle for intercultural understanding and the betterment of society through a commitment to daily work and personal growth. He demands the very best out of each student and is committed to offering life-changing experiences through the realization of a student’s inner potential.

Performance Videos

• Chinary Ung’s Cinnabar Heart (solo marimba)
• Mikel Kuehn’s Devouring Time (solo marimba)
• Javier Alvarez’s Temzacal (solo maracas and electronics)
• Karlheinz Stockhausen’s Kontakte (piano, percussion, and electronics)
• Projeto Arcomusical performs Beyer's Berimbau Sextet no. 2, "Traíra"
• Dal Niente performs Chinary Ung’s Sprial (cello, piano, percussion trio)