Cellist of the Chiara String Quartet for 18 years, Gregory Beaver performed over 500 concerts in concert halls on 3 continents, garnered a Grammy nomination, premiered 40 works, and recorded 7 major albums. Beyond traditional concertizing, the Chiaras were the first quartet to perform in clubs and bars across the country, reaching younger audiences and hiring a manager specifically for that role. Recently, removing the barrier of music stands and connecting with audiences more directly, the quartet offers all programs memorized. In 2016, the quartet presented all 6 of Béla Bartók’s string quartets memorized in a 2 day period at the Ravinia Festival and recorded the quartets on Azica Records Bartók by Heart. Their final performance in May of 2018 featured the New York premiere of Philip Glass’s piano quintet, composed for the Chiaras and pianist Paul Barnes.

From the beginning of his work as a performer, Gregory has been fascinated with the process of growth. This fuels his performing, composing, teaching, and writing with a passion from 18 years of performing internationally with the Chiara String Quartet. It permeates his published writings in Strad Magazine, a book on computer programming, his contributions to the open source programming world and even his personal recipe for guacamole. Mr. Beaver takes this passion and devotes it to expanding his solo performing, composing, and teaching activities. It extends to his role as a Staff Software Engineer at Braze, Inc. where he gets to hack on interesting problems that help business engage with their customers in more authentic ways, seamlessly transitioning between musical practice and computer work in a typical day.

Before his professional life, Mr. Beaver studied with Joel Krosnick at the Juilliard School, and Norman Fischer at Rice University. He had the opportunity to work with great conductors such as Claudio Abbado, Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, played principal cello of the Tanglewood Music Center Orchestra, and won first prize at the Corpus Christi International Competition. He began his cello studies under Char Sherman as a Suzuki student and studied in high school with renowned pedagogue Louis Potter, jr. Mr. Potter studied with Willem Willeke at Juilliard, graduating in 1935. Mr. Willeke had a long and fruitful relationship with Johannes Brahms, perhaps explaining why Mr. Beaver feels an affinity for Brahms. Gregory has performed cycles of Solo Bach, Beethoven Cello/Piano Sonatas, as well as Brahms, Beethoven, and Bartok cycles with the Chiara Quartet. He lives with his wife, violinist Hyeyung Yoon, 2 daughters and cat in Jersey City, New Jersey.