Neal Farwell - composer - conductor

Neal Farwell - composer


Neal Farwell composes music for instruments and voices, for the “acousmatic” fixed medium, and for the meeting points of human players and live electronics. His work is commissioned by notable performers and performed internationally. Neal's music is layered, complex, and marked by a deep concern for human expression.

“intensely evocative and moving”
“intensely poignant and beautifully paced”
audience comments on
Photographs of Water

Neal gained his MMus and PhD in composition from the University of East Anglia, UK, studying with Simon Waters. In 1998 he moved to the USA as a Knox Fellow at Harvard University. He studied with Bernard Rands and Mario Davidovsky at Harvard, with David Rakowski at Brandeis University, and was a member of faculty at Longy School of Music. Since January 2002, Neal has taught at the University of Bristol, where he is Professor of Composition and Director of the Composition and Recording Studios, and served 2017-2019 as Head of the School of Arts. Neal is active also as a conductor, and as curator of the electroacoustic concert series Sonic Voyages.

A selection of works is listed below - click on the title of the work for programme notes and to listen to the music.

See also the full list of works.

Photographs of Water

for multichannel fixed media (2013)

Songs and Shards

for piano and electronics (2012)

Shroud

for piccolo / alto flute and electronics (2003/2007)

Three Friends

for two-channel fixed media (2000)