Jack McNeill
is a clarinettist, composer and cross-discipline musician interested in exploring the points where different traditions and sound worlds meet. He directs Propellor, a 12-piece ensemble developed at Snape Maltings and currently touring its first work, Loom. Jack has premiered solo and chamber works by Philip Glass, Richard Ayres, Karin Rehnqvist, Michael Finnissy, Joe Cutler, Ed Bennett and Howard Skempton amongst others. He performs regularly with the Gildas Quartet, David Le Page, Clare O’Connell and Viv McLean. His work as a freelance musician includes being an on-stage musician/actor with Sebastian Mathias and Michael Wolters's Danserye, and Thom Luz's When I Die, performing and improvising for the Royal Shakespeare Company, recording for Gecko Theatre and Trish Clowes’s Emulsion Sinfonietta, orchestral and chamber work with the LSO, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Ensemble 360, Britten Sinfonia, CBSO, BBC Singers, the Hilliard Ensemble and BCMG. He is a member of Decibel, Loki, Drawlight quartet and a guest musician with Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra. Passionate about music education, Jack’s teaching work includes University of Birmingham and he was director of the chamber music strand of Aldeburgh Young Musicians for two years. Improviser and passionate contemporary musician, Jack has given complete performances of Henze's Le Miracle de la Rose and Stockhausen’s Harlekin; a substantial work performed from memory where the clarinettist is required to dance and mime while playing! Jack was bass clarinet soloist for a BBC broadcast of David Lang’s The Passing Measures. He also performed Der Kleine Harlekin and In Freundschaft in the opening concert of the Stockhausen Festival of Light. Jack is currently working on a Sound and Music New Voices project with composer Liz Johnson and James Dooley, to create a new touring work for clarinettist, live electronics, percussion and dancer based on the poetry of David Hart with choreography by Dane Hurst. He is the clarinettist for Tao of Glass at Manchester International Festival 2019, a world premiere from composer Philip Glass and performer-director Phelim McDermott (Improbable) which goes on tour in 2020.