Kate Neal is an artist with over 20 years’ experience as a composer, arranger, educator, and collaborator. In 2020/21 Neal premiered Sentiment Logistics with Sal Cooper, a TURA No Borders commission, as well as new works for Golden Gate Brass, Muses Trio and sound design for the RISING featured theatre work The Dispute. A new solo cello work Old Silences (with animation by Sal Cooper) also premiered in Brisbane and was to feature at the 2021 Art Music Awards.
In 2019 Neal premiered The Commuter Variations commissioned by the Melbourne Recital Centre (10th Anniversary), performed by Lisa Moore with animation by Sal Cooper. In 2018 Neal premiered While You Sleep, a 60min ground-breaking work for string quartet and visual media, presented by Arts House, Melbourne. In 2016 she composed Permission to Speak a vocal work in collaboration with theatre maker Tamara Saulwick. Produced and presented by Chamber Made, Permission to Speak achieved critical acclaim, and also showcased at APAM 2018.
In 2017 Neal premiered Never Tilt Your Chair at PICA (Perth Institute of Contemporary Art) with the Sound Collectors, a work for over 200 pieces of cutlery. This involved substantial instrument design and construction. Neal also composed five short bagatelles, Eurus for Arcadia Winds in the Musica Viva Schools program as well as a new work for the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, August 2017. In 2015 Neal presented her concert length work Semaphore, which won Instrumental Work of the Year as well as Performance of the Year at the APRA Art music awards, showcased at APAM (Brisbane) and pitched at Classical:Next (Rotterdam). This work showed exceptional courage in documenting ANZAC signalman, and found new ways in integrating and notating physical movement and gesture for both musicians and dancers.
In 2015 Neal was the recipient of an Australia Council for the Arts Fellowship, allowing her to compose six substantial works over two years. In 2013 Neal returned from the US to take a one-year position as Composer in Residence for the Four Winds Festival. From 2009-2013 Neal was a Graduate Fellow at Princeton University in the USA, and from 2007-2009 she was based in the UK. Neal received a NUFFIC scholarship in 1999 and studied with Louis Andriessen and Martijn Padding at the Royal Conservatory in the Netherlands.
Neal currently (2020/21) is a lecturer in Interactive Composition at the VCA, University of Melbourne.
Neal holds a BMus (VCA, Melbourne); BMus/MMus (RC, The Hague); PGDip (non western music, SC, Amsterdam); PGDip (RNCM, Manchester); PhD Graduate Fellow, Princeton University.
“Adrenalin-filled musical adventure a winner” – The Age
“Ravishing piano glissandi and arpeggiated strings” – The Australian
“Complex, rousing stuff, performed with precision” – Australian Arts Review
“Explosion of scintillating colour and intoxicating movement” – Herald Sun