Neil Beckmann
"As a teacher, I’m dedicated to helping my students have fun, gain confidence, and develop their musical skills. I’m always looking for new ways to engage my students and help them express themselves, whether that’s learning songs they already love, working on writing their own music, or helping to introduce them to new music or techniques. Learning an instrument is such a deeply joyful and empowering` experience, asking us to find depths of patience and dedication within ourselves, and it’s such an honor to get to be a part of that with every student I teach."
Neil Beckmann is a Brooklyn-based guitarist, teacher, instrument builder, and arts worker interested in creating an expansive life in music for himself and others. Encompassing performing, teaching, commissioning new works, exploring the diverse plucked string instrument family, and making his own instruments, he hopes to engender a spirit of curiosity for how music can be made, explored, and performed through many different lenses.
While enjoying performing music from across the centuries, Neil especially enjoys collaborating with composers and working on new music, having been a part of premiering dozens of solo and chamber pieces for guitar.
He has performed in spaces such as Lincoln Center, MASS MoCa, Merkin Concert Hall, Symphony Space, El Museo del Barrio, University of Pennsylvania, Brandeis University, and CUNY Graduate Center in solo, chamber, improvisational, and orchestral settings. An avid chamber musician, he has performed with Contemporaneous, guitarist JIJI, Heartbeat Opera, BlackBox Ensemble, and lots of friends in venues across New York City.
Originally from Cincinnati, Ohio, Neil lives and works in New York City as a freelancer, traveling around the city to teach and perform and is the co-label manager at New Focus Recordings.
Recent highlights include recording Dylan Mattingly's Transmutation Notebooks with Contemporaneous, released on Nonesuch in 2026, a 17 show international tour of RENT In Concert, performing seven shows as a part of Heartbeat Opera's annual drag show at Judson Memorial Church, and being a semifinalist in the 2025 Naumburg Competition with FAN Trio.
Formative teachers include David Starobin, David Leisner, Clare Callahan, Rodney Stuckey, Richard Goering, Daniel Swenberg, and oodles of books and YouTube videos to learn how to make instruments in his apartment.