“In Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet (the Sacconi Quartet) were joined by clarinettist Jack McNeill whose rapport with his colleagues was obvious throughout. At the centre of their performance of this expansive, nostalgic, autumnal work was the magnificent Adagio at whose heart arises a series of florid clarinet arabesques that spiral and swoop over rustling strings. This was just one highlight in a compelling account of a piece whose ebb and flow of expressive tension was made to seem entirely natural and spontaneous.”
I play clarinet and bass clarinet, write music and make things that happen between the worlds of music, theatre and dance. With a background rooted in contemporary classical performance practice and an interest in folk and ancient resonances, the work I make moves between the seams that tie these elements together.
I’m involved in a wide variety of performance projects, chamber, orchestral and as a solo clarinet player. A lot of my work combines audio visual elements, live processing, spoken word, dance and theatre.
Sometimes these projects are large scale tours and sometimes they’re much smaller, intimate events - one-off happenings invented by friends or collaborations coming into being on the hoof.
I have been supported by the Arts Council England National Lottery Project Grants, PRS Open Fund, Transmission Fund (Help Musicians UK), Sound and Music (Seed Award), IVORS, Brighter Sound, Worshipful Company of Musicians and Countess of Munster.
I also teach and run various chamber music and creative courses, because I feel that one of the best ways to make new discoveries is to have to try and bring about the same curiosity in others.
Through my work as a clarinettist, I’ve had the extraordinary pleasure to perform and collaborate on hundreds of new works, and to learn from a variety of inspiring mentors. I’ve also been an artist in residence at Snape Maltings Open Space, Sage Gateshead Summer Studios and Brewery Arts in Kendal.
I used this residency time to develop the ensemble Propellor alongside some of my favourite musicians. The Snape residency led to writing our first hour long touring work Loom along with five miniatures for different combinations within the group, and in turn, gave me the confidence to start a series of new writing projects. At Brewery Arts, I worked on Propellor’s second project Flight, which explores the connections between music, birds and soundscape ecology.
Clarinettist, composer and maker Jack McNeill is a musician exploring the intersections of different traditions and sound worlds. Director of the 12-piece cross-genre Propellor, he makes work that sits somewhere between live music, theatre and radio.
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 and the Tempest 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, Sacconi Quartet, Ensemble 360, Britten Sinfonia, CBSO, BBC Singers, the Hilliard Ensemble and BCMG. He is a member of Decibel, the Le Page Ensemble, Loki, Drawlight quartet and Joe Acheson’s Hidden Orchestra.
Passionate about music education, Jack is a tutor and coach at University of Birmingham, directed the chamber music strand of Aldeburgh Young Musicians for two years and is part of the team bringing Future Creatives, a new talent development programme to Brewery Arts, Kendal.
An 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. Current cross-genre projects include Flight - Propellor’s exploration of soundscape ecology, music and birds in collaboration with writer Mark Cocker and musician Leafcutter John, a new trio with percussionist Stuart Brown and viola player Kay Stephen working with dance, live electronics/AV and graphic score, and a touring solo project in 2023.
Jack received a Sound and Music New Voices Seed Award, Brighter Sound, Help Musicians and IVORS mentoring programme in 2020-22, which he is directing towards Propellor’s next large-scale project, Flight and his new solo project. His music combines contemporary clarinet soundscapes with live processing, real-world sound and spoken word. Jack 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 will continue touring in 2023. He is musician in residence at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal 2021-22 and one of the creators of Kendal’s new music night, Thwaite Sessions…
Photographs featuring Sarah Goldstone