BIO

SHORT BIO

Charlie Beale is an internationally acclaimed choral director, jazz educator, composer-arranger, and author, known for his visionary leadership and pioneering work in activist choral singing. From London to New York to San Diego and beyond, Charlie has led major LGBTQ+ choruses, collaborated with artists from Sia and Demi Lovato to Hugh Jackman, and conducted choirs of hundreds on stages from London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall and Lincoln Center to Carnegie Hall.

As Artistic Director of both the San Diego and New York City Gay Men’s Choruses, he spearheaded programs that broke down social barriers — from youth empowerment and elder engagement to international cultural exchange. His award-winning choral arrangements are sung around the world, and he’s also a trailblazer in jazz education, with a Ph.D. from the University of London, publications with Oxford and Hal Leonard, and decades of global teaching experience.

Vice President emeritus of GALA Choruses, a founding leader of the Global Alliance of Queer Choirs and one of very few to be nominated for the UK’s Jazz Parliamentary Award for services to jazz education, Charlie is a passionate advocate for stylistic diversity, inclusion, and the healing power of collective singing.

LONG BIO

Charlie Beale is an internationally acclaimed choral director, jazz educator, composer-arranger, and author, known for his visionary leadership and pioneering work in activist choral singing.

A passionate campaigner for stylistic diversity within choral singing, he was Artistic Director of the San Diego Gay Men’s Chorus from 2022-2025, and held the same position at the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus from 2007-2019. Highlights in San Diego included joint performances with Coro Gay Ciudad de Mexico, Coro Diversidad Tijuana and the homeless choir Voices of our City. SDGMC’s Schools program broke down barriers for kids across San Diego.

Under his energized leadership, NYCGMC expanded to 300 singers, achieved strong commercial success, and was recognized for its innovative, entertaining and impactful performances locally, across the US and internationally. NYCGMC’s Connect program included Youth Pride Chorus, queer pop a cappella ensemble Tonewall, a schools program and a singalong program for LGTBTIQ+ elders across all five boroughs of New York City.

Highlights included performances to stadium-sized audiences with Sia and Demi Lovato, singing on the Emmy Award-winning movie of Larry Kramer's iconic 'The Normal Heart' (2010), a 2013 European tour, and a 2015 performance with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra at Lincoln Center. In June 2019, the development of Quiet No More, a 45 minute choral work celebrating the 50th Anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, performed by 25 choirs across the US and internationally. The project culminated in a massed choral performance under his direction by over 600 singers at Carnegie Hall.

He has a library of over 200 arrangements in all styles, mainly for TTBB chorus, and he is an award-winning arranger in jazz and choral music, published by Oxford, Hal Leonard, Faber and ABRSM Publishing. A leading innovator in the field, he also penned the chapter in LGBTIQ+ choral singing in the recent Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy. Now Vice President of the Board of Directors of GALA Choruses and President of the Global Alliance of Queer Choirs, Charlie is a leading voice in the queer choral movement. In turbulent and uncertain times, he is especially passionate about music as a way to unify, heal and bring people together.

Charlie remains one of the UK's most influential jazz educators. Having received his Ph.D from the Institute of Education, London University, he taught at the Royal College of Music in London from 1999-2007, where he was Area Leader for Aural Training, Professor of Jazz Piano and directed the Royal College of Music Big Band. An alumnus of the Guildhall’s famed jazz course, he was nominated for a UK Jazz Parliamentary Award for services to jazz education in 2005, and was on the Resource Team of the International Association for Jazz Education in the early 2000s. Author of critically acclaimed book 'Jazz Piano from Scratch' (Hal Leonard/ABRSM), he also penned the chapter on Jazz Education in the recent Oxford Companion to Jazz. Central to the invention of the UK’s Grade exams for beginner jazz musicians, he has worked with thousands of musicians and educators in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia and New Zealand.

Vice President emeritus of GALA Choruses, a founding leader of the Global Alliance of Queer Choirs and one of very few to be nominated for the UK’s Jazz Parliamentary Award for services to jazz education, Charlie is a passionate advocate for stylistic diversity, inclusion, and the healing power of collective singing.

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