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Stephen McNeff studied composition at the Royal Academy of Music and did post-graduate research at the University of Exeter. He has composed for opera, music theatre and drama in the UK, the USA and Canada, was Composer in Residence at the Banff Centre, and worked with Comus Music Theatre and the Canadian Opera Company. His music has won awards in Toronto and the Edinburgh Festival, and he has been widely performed and recorded in the UK and Europe, Singapore, Japan and North America. His collaborations span a broad range of music making, from the Canadian Brass (and the New York Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Brass), to the percussion quartet Ensemble Bash and Joanna MacGregor’s Sound Circus series at the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester. His music for children is widely played and broadcast, most recently with the BBC Concert orchestra on Radio 3. Music theatre works have been heard at the Covent Garden Festival (The Wasteland at the Donmar Warehouse), the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith (Slump), the Edinburgh Festival (Aesop) and BAC (Passions). Matins for the Virgin of Guadalupe, written for soprano Patricia Rozario, was premiered at Dartington International Summer School and BAC in London in 2002, and featured at the Cheltenham International Festival of Music in 2004.
His music is played from Mexico (Guanajuato Festival) to Japan where the Tokyo Kosei Wind Orchestra recorded Ghosts (which has received dozens of performances since 2002 and been recorded again in the USA). In recent years he has had had highly successful premieres at the Royal Northern College of Music, the Purcell Room, and, in July 2003, Zoë Martlew gave the first performance of his Cello Sonata. The Winged Lion for Wind Orchestra was first heard at the Royal Northern College of Music in March 2004 and was recorded in 2006. His opera for the Unicorn Theatre (in collaboration with the Philharmonia Orchestra) based on Philip Pullman’s novel, Clockwork, opened in Bury St Edmunds and toured to Cardiff, Poole and the Lowry in Manchester before coming to the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio for three weeks in March and April 2004 where it played to full houses and highly enthusiastic reviews. His Clarinet Concerto for Linda Merrick was premiered in 2005 in Finland, London and Warrington and featured at the International Wind Conference at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. His music has been regularly performed at Dartington International Summer School and works premiered there have included the Piano Quintet (a companion work for Schubert's Trout Quintet) and The Unknown, a song cycle for tenor and piano based on poems by Edward Thomas.
In 2005 McNeff was appointed to the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra as their 'Composer in the House'. This appointment – funded by the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Performing Right Society Foundation - early on resulted in two substantial works for the orchestra (Heiligenstadt and Secret Destinations) as well as music for summer and Christmas concerts. Other works include Echoes & Reflections for brass and percussion and a number of pieces for Kokoro, the BSO’s contemporary ensemble. In 2006 Gentle Giant, an opera for young people commissioned by the Royal Opera House (based on Michael Morpurgo's book), was premièred in London and toured to Cambridge, Kent and Devon. McNeff then went on to work with Opera North on What I Heard About Iraq (commissioned by Fuseleeds 2006), traveled to Mexico for the CD launch of a new work for pianist Ana Cervantes and returned to the UK for the premiere of Tarka the Otter, a community opera for the Two Moors Festival which has recently been nominated for the British Composer Awards
More recent works for the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra include Sinfonia (March 2007) and Strip Jack Naked (for Kokoro, April 2007). 2007 has also seen new works for the Swansea Philharmonic Choir, the Irish Youth Wind Ensemble and Ensemble Cymru. The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra has invited him to return as Composer in Residence for a further season (2007/8) and he has recently completed Weathers a choral work for the BSO and the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus to be conducted by David Hill in November and broadcast in Radio 3 in early December. There will also be new works for Kokoro and the Bournemouth Symphony Children’s chorus and these commissions will run along side commitments for new works for the Philharmonia Orchestra and the return of Gentle Giant to the Royal Opera House in February 2008. (11/07)
Update 6 December 2007 Tarka the Otter - with a libretto by Richard Williams based on the book by Henry Williamson - has won the 2007 British Composer Award for Best Stage Work The judges said, "McNeff's score is as lively and engaging a theatrical animal as his feisty hero, Tarka. It effortlessly integrates professional and amateur performers and moves along at a cracking pace. His word setting highlights Henry William's often poignant text beautifully, and the whole evening magically evokes the vanished world of the West Country in the period after World War One.” Thanks to the Two Moors Festival for commissioning the work and to the wonderful cast and orchestra conducted by Nicholas Cleobury. The work will return to Two Moors in 2009 and also tour.
(PLEASE SEE 'FORTHCOMING' FOR A CURRENT LIST OF PERFORMANCES)
Stephen McNeff's works are exclusivley published by Peters Edition www.editionpeters.com contact Marc Dooley (marc.dooley@editionpeters.com +44 (0)207 553 4034) except for some wind ensemble works which are handled by Maecenas Contemporary Composers 5 Bushey Close, Old Barn Lane, Kenley, Surrey CR8 5AU (+44 (0)20 86605273.
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