Education & Residencies
Thoughtful pedagogy. Immersive design. Performances that teach by doing.
Beo’s educational work is built on the same principles that guide our performances: deep listening, clarity of intention, and meaningful engagement. Our programs are interactive, carefully designed, and adaptable—meeting students where they are while challenging them to hear, play, and think more deeply about music.
Inside the Beo Education Experience
This short video offers a glimpse into how our programs unfold in real time — blending performance, dialogue, demonstration, and student participation.
Each visit is customized to the institution. Programs may include:
Large-audience interactive concerts
Chamber music masterclasses
Composer workshops
Multi-day school residencies
Guided concert experiences
Our goal is simple: to strengthen listening, ensemble awareness, and interpretive confidence at every level.
To inquire about bringing Beo to your institution, please visit our Booking page.
Interactive Concerts for Young Audiences
Finding Melody
A highly interactive performance designed to teach students how to listen. Through standing, clapping, singing, and focused participation, students experience melody, rhythm, and musical attention as physical, shared actions.
This program has been performed for audiences of up to 900 students at once and adapts easily across age groups. The goal is simple and ambitious: to transform listening from something passive into something active, joyful, and intentional.
Interactive concert for large audiences | Elementary through middle school
This program moves beyond the standard “instrument demo.” Students explore the range, timbre, and expressive roles of the violin, viola, and cello—how the instruments overlap, differ, and ultimately work together to tell musical stories.
Students are invited to perform alongside the quartet, experiencing how individual musical voices interact, respond, and converse. The focus is on musical dialogue—the core idea that chamber music is storytelling through sound.
The Instruments of the String Quartet
Interactive demonstration concert | Elementary through middle school
Master Classes & Advanced Ensemble Work
Beo’s master classes focus on unlocking the next level of ensemble performance: communication, balance, listening, and shared interpretation. These sessions are designed so that everyone in the room is learning, not just the musicians on stage.
We address both musical and practical tools—how to rehearse efficiently, listen collectively, shape long phrases, and make interpretive decisions as a group. Classes are structured to be engaging, transparent, and immediately applicable.
Chamber Music Master Classes
For middle school, high school, university, and pre-professional ensembles
Composer-Focused Presentations
These presentations explore the craft of writing for string quartet from multiple perspectives. Some sessions focus on everything but the notes—how dynamics, articulations, phrasing marks, and language on the page profoundly shape performance.
Other presentations examine extended techniques, reframing them within the reality that canonical quartet repertoire already demands extraordinary technical and expressive range. The goal is to help composers write more clearly, more idiomatically, and more imaginatively for the ensemble.
Writing for the String Quartet
For student and emerging composers
Residencies (Middle & High School)
Beo’s residency program is a central part of our educational mission. These residencies were developed in collaboration with composer and educator Richard Neukom, who founded and led the Devils Lake Public School String Program for 41 years.
Richard has written a set of pedagogical works for string quartet and orchestra at both middle and high school levels. Beo works directly with school orchestras over multiple days, rehearsing alongside students and performing the solo quartet parts with them.
Music is provided to teachers well in advance, allowing preparation to happen in the classroom before our arrival. The residency model allows for meaningful work on technique, balance, sound, listening, and ensemble awareness—resulting in students performing at a genuinely high level.
Multi-day school residencies | Middle and high school
Quartet & Orchestra Residencies
Guided Concert Experiences
These concerts invite audiences inside a work before performing it in full. Rather than a lecture, the experience unfolds through musical examples, discussion, and live demonstration—exploring structure, poetry, and expressive intent.
After intermission, the work is performed in its entirety. Audiences leave with a deeper understanding and a more powerful listening experience. This format has been presented with works such as Bach’s Art of Fugue and other major repertoire, consistently resulting in highly engaged and fulfilled audiences.