Neal Farwell - conductor

Neal Farwell is a passionate advocate for the music of our time, and for the great works of our musical past. His work as a conductor meshes with his life as a composer and educator. Neal’s conducting teachers include Colin Metters (RAM), Benjamin Zander (Boston Philharmonic), Robert Gutter (UNC), Ovidiu Balan (Bacau Philharmonic) and Paul Sarcich (Morley College, London). Neal works regularly with the Bristol University Symphony Orchestra and the University New Music Ensemble. His repertoire includes composers as varied as Brahms and Birtwistle, Britten and Takemitsu, Stravinsky and Vaughan Williams. A skilled animateur and interpreter of new music, Neal has directed many first performances of music by up-and-coming composers, in concert and in workshop, with groups including Kokoro, Ensemble Meduse, Contemporary Music for All, Brodowski Quartet, Bristol Ensemble, Gemini, Ensemble Variances, Quatuor Bozzini, and Ensemble Musikfabrik.

Recent concert repertoire

* World Première
† UK Première

Symphony Orchestra

Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra
Birtwistle: Sonance Severance 2000
Brahms: Symphony No.3
Brahms: Symphony No.4
Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem
Bruckner: Symphony No.7
Alissa Firsova: Bergen’s Bonfire – An Apocalyptic Dream
Holst: The Planets
Lutoslawski: Symphony No.4
Mahler: Symphony No.1
Mahler: Symphony No.5
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances
Rands: Ceremonial 3
Saint-Saëns: Symphony No.3 ("Organ")
Richard Strauss: Death and Transfiguration
Stravinsky: Petrushka (1911)
Stravinsky: Symphony in Three Movements
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No.6, Pathétique
Vaughan Williams: Job: a Masque for Dancing
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.3, A Pastoral Symphony
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.8

Dominic Irving: Two Roads (2011)*
Daniel Linker: Sunlit Breakers (2014)*
Augusta Read Thomas: Radiant Circles (2010) †
Stephen Rockey: Il Terribile (2013)*
Anthony Willis: Bhutto (2009)*

Concerto

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.3
Benedict Todd: Organ Concerto (2011)*
Jolyon Laycock: Seven Hills, Sinfonia concertante for piano and orchestra (2009)*

Chamber Orchestra / Ensemble (selection)

Béla Bartók: Divertimento for String Orchestra
Ed Bennett: My Broken Machines (2004)
Luciano Berio: Folk Songs
Harrison Birtwistle: Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Perpetuum
Richard Causton: Tunings
Phillip A. Cooke: Jacobite
Hywel Davies: Nocturne and Flurry from Chamber Symphony
Litha Efthymiou: Dancing Seas (2015)*
Neal Farwell: The Memory Toy (2005)*
Neal Farwell: Bloodlines I (2010)*
Neal Farwell: Solaire (2016)*
David Greenhorne: Labyrinth (2005)
Jean Hasse: Tuning for ‘piano tuner’ and small ensemble
Hans Werner Henze: Sonata for 6 Players (1984)
Yung-Shen Hsiao: Breeze through Pines (2015)*
Louis Johnson: Lullaby (2010)
Alison Kay: Rat-Race (2000)
Witold Lutoslawski: Chain 1
James MacMillan: "…as others see us…"
Steve Martland: Mr Anderson's Pavane (1994), Principia (1989)
Nico Muhly: By All Means (2004)
Mindaugas Piecaitis: CATcerto †
Geoffrey Poole: Carved in Stone
Camellia Mohamed Razali: Sayup (2015)*
Toru Takemitsu: Rain Coming
Toru Takemitsu: Rain Spell
Karen Tanaka: Frozen Horizon
Benedict Todd: Out of the Machine*
Anton Webern: Concerto for Nine Instruments Op.24
Judith Weir: Musicians Wrestle Everywhere
Richard Whalley: The Joy of Melody
Beth Wiseman: Ama no Gawa