Alumni Spotlight: Neeki Bey
Music alum Neeki Bey (M.M. ’07) has built a career spanning performance and production, drawing on his Meadows training to lead creative work on national stages.
Neeki Bey (M.M. ’07) is this week’s featured alum in our new Alumni Spotlight series for the This Week at Meadows e-newsletter. Each week, a different Meadows alum will be highlighted for their accomplishments post-graduation.
Students in Meadows’ Division of Music are encouraged to explore both the technical and expressive possibilities of their craft. Neeki Bey, who earned a Master of Music degree in Music Education, has built a dynamic career as a musician and creative producer, working across performance, composition and large-scale artistic productions. He credits the flexibility of his Meadows education and the relationships he built there with shaping a career that moves fluidly between artistic and leadership roles.
Bey was guided by a strong sense of purpose that led him to seek a program where he could explore music from multiple angles, which he found at SMU. During his time in the Division of Music, he studied vocal pedagogy, conducting and piano, while also working closely with sacred music scholar Michael Hawn at SMU’s Perkins School of Theology. That interdisciplinary experience proved foundational, as did the connections he formed with fellow students and faculty.
“Coming to SMU was the result of a calling I felt very clearly,” says Bey, whose initial intent was to study music ministry. “The flexibility of the program allowed me to study the range of things I knew I needed, and that prepared me to step into spaces where I was conducting, producing and leading.”
Since graduating, Bey has built a career spanning both performance and production at the highest levels. A recital project he produced with countertenor and SMU alum John Holiday (B.M. ’07) helped introduce him to the New York arts scene and opened the door, through his company Ikeen Creative, to senior and executive producing work with organizations including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Lincoln Center and MCC. His work has since ranged from musical theater and EDM to orchestral and operatic productions, reflecting both artistic curiosity and a deep commitment to collaboration. Most recently, in November of 2025, he served as Executive Producer on the revised presentation of Blue by Jeanine Tesori.
Neeki Bey performs with fellow Meadows alum John Holiday at the Winspear Opera House.
After several years deeply rooted in New York, Bey is bringing his creative vision back to North Texas this April through the Peaceful Piano Festival, an original concept he is producing with the City of Frisco (Play Frisco) that brings together professional and community musicians for a community-centered celebration of arts, wellness and peaceful piano music. Featuring over 20 pianists, the festival is anchored by different expressions of peaceful piano music and is quite possibly the first of its kind to center this music in a live festival format.
“The festival highlights both aspirational and local talent,” he explains. “We will have a wide range of genres and artistic expressions represented, with artists from the church, classical and jazz worlds, along with community music schools, composers, visual artists, literary voices and reflective wellness offerings connected to this peaceful piano space.”
The festival’s connection to SMU also runs deep, with participants and collaborators including Kristin Yost (M.M. ’06), owner of the Centre for Musical Minds and a graduate of the piano pedagogy and performance program; Hando Nahkur, who earned a Performer’s Diploma from Meadows in 2013 and became the first student to receive Meadows’ Artist Diploma in 2015; Clark W. Joseph (M.T.S. in Church Music ’05); Tonya Burton, former director of the Perkins Youth School of Theology; and esteemed, recently retired piano professor David Karp.
Bey’s return to North Texas for the Peaceful Piano Festival reflects the same spirit of connection and collaboration that first drew him to SMU. The training and lasting relationships he built at Meadows continue to inform his work today, providing a foundation he draws on as he creates new artistic spaces and opportunities. As Bey’s career continues to evolve, that Meadows experience remains a throughline, shaping not only what he builds, but how he brings others into the process.
Learn more about the Division of Music here.