Beck, a Montreal native, started piano lessons at five and by eleven he was learning Bee Gees songs by ear and writing music for his first-ever band, the unfortunately-named Chris and The Cupcakes. During high school he studied flute, saxophone, trombone & drums, and wrote many tender 80's love ballads.
While studying music at Yale, Beck had an epiphany: "I discovered my talent for composing was far greater than my talent for performing and writing lyrics," which is actually saying very little. He wrote two musicals with his brother Jason (a.k.a. Gonzales, the Paris-based pianist-producer-prankster), as well as an opera based on The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allen Poe.
Upon graduation from Yale in 1992, he moved to Los Angeles to attend USC's prestigious film scoring program, where he studied with Jerry Goldsmith. Beck was immediately attracted to the creative challenges unique to the marriage of music and picture. Or, perhaps more accurately, Beck was immediately attracted to the possibility of being well paid for doing what seemed like not too much work. A personal recommendation from the legendary Buddy Baker, head of the USC Music Department, led to his first assignment for a Canadian TV series called "White Fang." Soon thereafter, he was asked to score a new TV series, "Buffy," based on the movie. Beck received the Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for his music to "Buffy." He decided to leave and pursue film work.
Beck was concerned about leaving television: "It was actually quite terrifying." He needn't have worried. The cheerleading comedy "Bring It On" launched a film career which has included such credits as "Under the Tuscan Sun," "Saved," and more recently, "Year of the Dog" and "The Seeker: The Dark is Rising".
Beck's electronic music band, Ape Quartet (with fellow composer Mark Kilian) recently released their second album, "Sedatellite," which earlier this year appeared on KCRW's album charts.
