Paul Bedal is a pianist and composer currently based in Brooklyn, NY. Bedal is a graduate of the Frost School of Music in Miami, Fl and earned his Master’s in Music Composition for the Screen from Columbia College Chicago.

On Bedal’s latest album release jazz critic Neil Tesser writes, “On Cerulean Stars, classical leanings and jazz formalism intersect with the post-freedom aesthetic of Chicago’s storied avant-garde. But don’t expect some sort of dialectical mashup; you won’t have to confront some split-personality collision of opposing forces because instead, pianist Paul Bedal and company have seamlessly blended their diverse experiences, investing his fully structured compositions with liberating energy. He provides the blueprint, and his cohorts color outside the lines.”

Bedal is a recipient of the Chicago Luminarts Fellowship Award (2014, 2015) for both improvisation and composition and a 2021 Chicago DCASE artist grant for his quartet record Cerulean Stars. Additionally, in 2021 he was commissioned by the Six Mile String Quartet to compose a piece for New Music Detroit’s Strange Beautiful Music festival.

Paul has also composed music for numerous short and feature films. His recent scoring effort for Erin Anne Macdonald’s movie Care, Paul was nominated for best composer for a short film at the Idyllwild Film Festival. His music has been featured in several film festivals including SOHO international film fest, SWSX, BIFF, Magnolia Independent Film Festival, Coney Island Film Festival, Summer in the South Film Fest and more.

 

Bedal served as an adjunct professor in jazz piano at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills, Illinois from (2017-2020) as well as teaching at Chicago’s Old Town School of Folk Music. Currently Paul serves as an accompanist at the Joffrey Ballet School in New York City.