Renown Musician, Educator, and Founder of Intentional Collaboration Institute
Paul Beaudry is a child prodigy whose musical evolution manifested at age five on piano and eight on drums. However, it was the San Francisco native’s discovery of the bass guitar that set the trajectory for him to become an internationally sought after composer, bassist, and lecturer. Beaudry is the CEO of Dancing Spirit Records based out of New York and brainchild of the Intentional Collaboration Institute committed to teaching people with different backgrounds to achieve a common goal through cutting-edge teamwork skills in business or in education through projects in STEM and music.
Since relocating to New York in 2001 to play on a larger stage, this jazz enthusiast has played on over 50 recordings, including 2010 Grammy Award Winner Stephen Colbert’s “A Colbert Christmas”, and toured in over 35 countries throughout North and South America, Europe and Asia. Beaudry has toured worldwide as a sideman with Steve Turre, Wycliffe Gordon, Charenee Wade, Dee Daniels, and Eric Lewis and also performed in concerts or on recordings with such jazz greats as Clark Terry, Grady Tate, Jimmy Cobb, Frank Wess, and Roy Hargrove among many others. In addition to producing numerous projects in various genres Beaudry has released three recordings as a bandleader. His group, Paul Beaudry & Pathways, has been chosen for several international tours co-sponsored by Jazz At Lincoln Center and the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. On tour they travel as U.S. cultural jazz ambassadors giving concerts and workshops to diverse audiences of all ages.
Although completing his first bachelor’s degree in Computer Science at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, upon starting college he could not let loose his drive of becoming a renown musician. In spite of working internships for IBM and Apple, Beaudry continued to perform as a musician and teach music part time. His dedication and commitment for excellence paid off allowing him to become the winner of the San Francisco Jazz Festival Scholarship to Berklee College of Music in 1995. His skills on the acoustic bass garnered him international attention in 1999 as he became the runner up in the International Society of Bassists Jazz Competition. He is a proud alum of Berklee College of Music where he graduated Magna Cum Laude with a degree in Classical Composition. He also holds a M.A. in Jazz Performance from Queens College and currently teaches at Teachers College at Columbia University. He has given master classes, clinics and workshops for students, young musicians, and general audience worldwide and is currently a bandleader for Jazz At Lincoln Center’s Jazz For Young People program in New York City.
Through the years Beaudry has noticed a growing need for greater communication and collaboration among diverse people in community and business. In founding Intentional Collaboration he has refocused his career to teaching teamwork and understanding as it becomes more apparent locally and globally that the whole has a potential to be greater than the sum of its parts in the same way an ensemble can perform together to make great music. When we learn more about ourselves, each other and how to work together we can achieve things that were previously only a dream. The future belongs to those who have a vision of inclusion, teamwork and excellence. Beaudry works to bring that future into a reality.
Now you can see what all the jazz is about … to Paul Beaudry music and teamwork is life.