Adam Beard is a New York City–based percussionist, composer, and educator. As a performer, he is active in the contemporary music scene and has appeared with ensembles such as Darkwood (which he co-founded), Resonant Refractions, the New Manhattan Sinfonietta, DNA Percussion, the Stony Brook Contemporary Chamber Players, and the AURA Contemporary Ensemble. His performances have been seen at venues in NYC and the surrounding area, including Carnegie Hall (with the New Manhattan Sinfonietta) and Lincoln Center, where he appeared in the premiere of John Luther Adams’ Crossing Open Ground as part of the Juilliard × Lincoln Center collaboration. He has also performed at festivals and conferences across the U.S., including the Percussive Arts Society International Convention (as a member of the University of Houston Percussion Ensemble), SPLICE Festival, the Hot Air Music Festival (featuring one of his original compositions), and the Chosen Vale International Percussion Seminar.
As a composer, Dr. Beard creates works for soloists and chamber ensembles with a focus on rhythm, time, and layered structures. His composition Tessellations was praised by Rob Smith, director of the AURA Contemporary Ensemble, for its intricate use of metric modulations and dynamic rhythmic transformations. His music has been performed throughout the United States by soloists and ensembles including Musiqa, the AURA Contemporary Ensemble, the Purchase College Percussion Ensemble, the University of Houston Percussion Ensemble, and The Spark Duo, as well as the Flauto d’Amore Project. His piece Webs received the Sarofim Composition Award.
As a music educator, Dr. Beard has taught students of all ages in a wide range of settings—from music technology and band in NYC public schools, to private percussion lessons, marching percussion, and percussion ensemble in Texas public schools, to teaching music courses, applied percussion, and percussion ensemble at the undergraduate level at Stony Brook University. He currently serves as Instructional Supervisor and Secondary Specialist at Education Through Music, where he mentors and supports K–12 music teachers across NYC public schools. In this role, he contributes to music curriculum development and leads the design and facilitation of professional development sessions for music educators.
Dr. Beard holds a Doctor of Musical Arts in Percussion Performance from Stony Brook University, where his scholarly work explored how compositional systems shape temporal relationships in music. His principal percussion teachers include Eduardo Leandro, Blake Wilkins, and Alec Warren; his principal composition teachers include Rob Smith, Matthew Barnson, and Margaret Schedel.
