Neil enjoys a varied performing career that encompasses symphonic, theatre and opera orchestral playing, chamber music and recital work.   He has worked with many notable conductors including Martyn Brabbins, Ryan Wigglesworth, Andrea Quinn and Diego Masson, and performed with singers and musicians including Sir John Tomlinson, Mark Padmore, Roderick Williams, Daniel Pailthorpe, Phillip Fowke, Andrew West and Joanna MacGregor.  He works regularly with a number of professional orchestras including South of England Festival Orchestra, Merriman Concert Orchestra, Chameleon Arts Orchestra and the Orchestra of Surrey Opera.

With Surrey Opera he has performed many of the 18th, 19th and 20th century's greatest operas, and been involved in the world premiere of two neglected British operas: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor's "Thelma" and George LLoyd's "Iernin".

In 2002 Neil co-founded the clarinet quartet Ensemble 4.  The quartet had an eclectic repertoire of pieces including a number of Neil's own arrangements.  They performed regularly across the UK and abroad at concert venues ranging from the great cathedrals and castles of England & Scotland through to small libraries. In 2005 they undertook a Channel Islands Music Council Tour which saw them performing recitals on Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney and Sark. After given the UK premiere of Joseph Vella's "Contrasts op.104", they were invited to perform at Malta's Victoria International Arts Festival in 2008. 

Other chamber music experience includes performances of Mozart's Clarinet Quintet, Poulenc's Sextet for Piano and Winds and Bax's Nonet with the ensemble Linoi.   

Neil has also worked with the renowned St Endellion Festival Orchestra for their summer series of concerts.  He was involved in performances of Wagner's epic opera Die Walküre, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony, Beethoven's Mass in C, Brahm's First Piano Concerto, Gounod's Petite Symphonie and a semi-staged version of Puccini's masterpiece La bohème.   

Neil also performs as a recitalist with the pianist Matthew Rickard. 

Neil's Instruments and equipment

Bb and A Clarinets: Selmer Recital

 Alto saxophone: Yanagisawa 

Tenor Saxophone: 1950's Noblet Standard

Bass Clarinet: 1960's Uebel

Eb Clarinet: Bossey and Hawkes Imperial

 Mouthpieces: Brad Behn (Leslie Craven model), Pillinger, Otto Link, Selmer Concept, Weinberg Zenith

Reeds: Marca, Vandoren and Legere

Selected forthcoming performances

  

Saturday 8 February 2020, St John's Smith Square, Westminster: 'Viennese Triumphs' with the Chameleon Arts Orchestra: programme of  Mozart, Beethoven and Haydn. 

 11 - 14 March 2020, Camberley Theatre: Gilbert & Sullivan's Ruddigore.

Saturday 4 April 2020, Harpenden Methodist Church: Mozart Mass in C Minor with the Burley Ensemble

Saturday 2 May 2020, Sherbourne Abbey: Elgar's The Kingdom with Chameleon Arts Orchestra

Saturday 16 May 2020, Tewkesbury Abbey: 'Music From Italy- Verdi & Puccini' with Chameleon Arts Orchestra

12-13 June 2020, St Magdalene's Church, Croydon: Mozart's Don Giovanni with Surrey Opera

13-17 July 2020, Minack Theatre, Cornwall: Mozart's Don Giovanni with Surrey Opera

Selected past performances

 

 

 Ensemble 4

 

 

 

Aug  2002: Culzean Arts Guild, Culzean Castle

 

Feb  2003: Tithe Barn, Wellingborough

 

Mar  2003: University of Essex

 

Jan  2003: St James’s Church Piccadilly

 

Apr  2003: Cheltenham Town Hall

 

May 2003: ‘Live in the Libraries’ County Durham

 

May 2003: Warwick Arts Centre

 

Jun  2003: Ewenny Festival

 

Aug 2003:  Cranleigh Arts Centre

 

Nov 2003: Boston Concert Club

 

Feb 2004: Middleton Hall, University of Hull

 

Mar 2004: Bude Music Society

 

Aug 2004: Guest artists at Hindhead clarinet & saxophone course

 

Oct 2004: Tithe Barn, Wellingborough

 

Nov 2004  Hemel Hempstead Music Society

 

Jan 2005: St Anne & St Agnes, London

 

Apr 2005: Sleaford Music Club

 

May2005: Chipping Sodbury Music Society

 

Jun 2005: Channel Islands Music Council Tour

 

Aug 2005: St Lawrence Jewry Music Festival

 

Mar 2006: Bideford Music Club

 

Jun 2006: Great Bowden Recital Series

 

Jul  2006:   Private Recital Gloucestershire

 

Aug 2006: Chichester Cathedral Concert Series

 

Sep 2006: Tithe Barn, Wellingborough

 

Aug 2007: St Lawrence Jewry Music Festival

 

July 2008: Victoria International Arts Festival, Malta

 

Oct 2009:  Music at St. Mary Magdelene’s, London

 

Mar 2010:  Farnborough Music Society 

 

 

 

Surrey Opera

 

 

 

2003: Macbeth

 

2004: Fiddler on the Roof

 

2004: The Magic Flute

 

2005: Peter Grimes

 

2006: A Masked Ball

 

2007: The Mikado

 

2008: The Merry Wives of Windsor

 

2009: Madama Butterfly

 

2009: The Barber of Seville

 

2010: My Fair Lady

 

2010: The Bartered Bride

 

2011: The Gondoliers

 

2012: Thelma

 

2013: Iernin

2014: Camelot

2016: A Midsummer Night's Dream

2018: Candide

2019: The Barber of Seville

 

 

 

Linoi Ensemble

 

 

 

Apr   2001:  Holy Trinity Church, Guildford

 

Sep   2001:  Holy Trinity Church, Guildford

 

Jun   2002:   St Ann & St Agnes Church, London

 

Nov  2004:  Cranleigh Arts Centre

 

Jul    2005:  Charlton House Recital Series

 

May  2006:  Lord Wandsworth College

 

 

 

St Endellion Festival Orchestra

2011  Summer Festival

2014  Summer Festival

 

 

Hickling/Rickard Duo

 

 

 

 Apr 2010:  Recital ‘British Music for clarinet & piano’, St Peter's Concert Series, Old Woking

 

Nov 2012: Recital ‘The Singing Clarinet’, St Peter's Concert Series, Old Woking

 

Nov 2014: Recital 'Something Borrowed', St Peter's Concert Series, Old Woking