The West Ocean String Quartet

Amongst other major symphonic and choral commissions are The Great and First Object (2013) for soprano and orchestra; Further Shore (2012) – an orchestral and choral setting of part of Seamus Heaney’s The Cure at Troy, for Barry Douglas and Camerata Ireland; Neil’s a cappella setting of the Exsultet (2012) played in the National Cathedral, Washington DC and his Agnus Dei for a cappella choir, premiered at Ground Zero, NYC (2009); Lacrimae Rerum, for strings (2008); the choral symphony OSSA (2007), and no tongue can tell (2004), a concerto for uilleann pipes and symphony orchestra that opened the Belfast Festival, written for and performed by Liam O’Flynn. 100 fiddles, 55 degrees north (2012) is a suite for 100 traditional fiddle players, premiered with musicians from Newfoundland, Sweden, Scotland and Ireland.

In 2019, in recognition of his immense contribution to the arts, Neil was awarded the highest individual honour the Arts Council of Northern Ireland can bestow, a Major Individual Award. He will use this award to compose a violin concerto for his daughter, Maebh, its world premiere scheduled for the autumn of 2020.

Along with the world-renowned dancer and choreographer, Jean Butler, Neil created this is an Irish dance, a duet for dancer and cellist which premiered to a sell-out run in Danspace, New York in November, 2015 and sell-out performances in The Kennedy Center, Washington DC in May, 2016. Other dance scores include Neither Either (2014) for Liz Roche/Maiden Voyage, and 4 Quartets (2009) for Maiden Voyage, a dance project based on TS Eliot’s collection poems.

Chamber compositions include The Helping Hand (2017), an octet based on Seamus Heaney’s Station Island and commissioned by the Ulster Orchestra, and Songs After Rain (2017), a macaronic song cycle for three voices and string quartet. Kilkenny Arts Festival has for the last three years commissioned Neil and Stephen Rea to collaborate to create new work – Derek Mahon’s New York time (2018), scored for piano and spoken voice; a setting of Oscar Wilde’s De Profundis, (2017), the text read alongside score and performed live by the Irish Chamber Orchestra, and a setting of Seamus Heaney’s Aeneid (2016), for spoken voice and cello.

Scores for television, film and radio include a feature-length film score, Lost Lives, (2019), recorded with the Ulster Orchestra and the Derry-based choir, Codetta; the award-winning movie Hell’s Pavement (2009); Trevor Griffiths’ RTS award-winning feature-length tv drama on Aneurin Bevan, Food For Ravens (1998) and many short dramas, television series and documentaries for BBC, C4 and RTÉ. Neil has composed and directed music extensively for theatre, including productions on Broadway and in the West End, and has been collaborating with Stephen Rea and Field Day Theatre Company since 1988 – notable productions include Seamus Heaney’s Aeneid (Kilkenny Arts Festival, 2016/NYC 2017), the late Sam Shepard’s final play, A Particle of Dread (Signature Theatre, NYC, 2014/5), Farewell and Half a Glass of Water (2012), Northern Star (1998) and St Oscar (1989). Other theatre work includes The Conquest of Happiness (European tour, 2013) and Belfast By Moonlight (2013) and Women on the Verge of HRT (West End,1997).

In 2011, Neil worked as a choral director on Pajanimals, a series of children’s tv shows for the Jim Henson Company, aired on PBS. He has presented programmes and series on television and radio, in both Irish and English for BBC and RTÉ, including in 2012 his hosting for 12 months of a weekly 2-hour Saturday evening radio programme on BBC. 

A cellist and an uilleann piper, he has worked with many leading musicians, both on stage and in the studio – these include Liam O’Flynn, Bryn Terfel, LSO, RPO, all the principle orchestras in Ireland, Christy Moore, Josh Groban, The Dubliners, The Chieftains, Mícheál Ó Súilleabháin, Altan, Eimear Quinn, Shaun Davey, Mary Black and Donal Lunny. In March 2019, Neil performed as soloist in Shaun Davey’s The Brendan Voyage. In his roles as producer, arranger and musician Neil has contributed to more than a hundred albums and performance venues range from Carnegie Hall to Mostar Bridge, from the Royal Albert Hall to the Palazzo Vecchio.

His compositions for The West Ocean String Quartet have received global acclaim, and the quartet’s fourth album, An Indigo Sky (2013) was voted “Album of the Year” in the Irish Times. All of the quartet’s albums have been played aboard the International Space Station. Knocknashee, a song Neil co-wrote with Brendan Graham (author of You Raise Me Up) was in the Billboard Top 10 World Music Album Charts in 2011. A keen believer in the process of music education, in addition to having taught at primary, secondary and tertiary levels, he has curated workshops on composition and performance for many years, including recent projects for U2‘s Music Generation Programme. In 2014, the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, invited Neil to perform, arrange and conduct music for a concert staged in the Royal Albert Hall, London, to mark the historic inaugural state visit of an Irish President to England. In recognition of his contribution through music to the library, in 2014 he was made an honorary life member of the Linen Hall Library, one of the oldest private libraries in the world.