Neal Endicott Music
Biography
Originally from Traverse City, MI, and currently living in Johnson City, TN, Neal Endicott (b. 1990) is a composer, educator, scholar, and saxophonist. His music is rooted in his experiences, personal history, and extramusical passions and is directed outward to the world from that perspective. His work frequently engages with jazz harmonic and melodic language, with the asymmetric metrical language of Eastern-European folk music, and makes use of varied orchestral color and texture as principal structural forces. His humor, love of literature, and passions for travel, food, wine, and spirits often inspire his work, as does his engagement with politics and activism.
Neal has written an extensive catalogue of works ranging from solo instrumental works to large-scale band and orchestra compositions. He has had works commissioned by the Five Colleges New Music Festival (Amherst, MA), Fifth House Ensemble (Chicago, IL), Michigan State University Concert Orchestra (East Lansing, MI), various ensemebles at East Tennessee State University, and performers Anthony Brackett, Lisa Perry, Brian Rodesch, Heather Killmeyer, and Justin Waller, among others.
His compositions have been awarded by the Dartmouth College Wind Ensemble, Michigan State University, the Sinta Quartet, the American Prize in Composition, the Mivos Quartet, and the PUBLIQuartet. His Concerto for Soprano Saxophone and Orchestra was twice awarded by Michigan State University and premiered by the MSU Symphony Orchestra with soloist Evan Harris in the spring of 2019. On the international level, Neal’s works for chamber orchestra have been performed multiple times by the Lemberg Philharmonic (Lviv, Ukraine) as part of KLK New Music’s Orient/Occident New Music Festival and in Murcia, Spain as part of Vox Novus’s Fifteen Minutes of Fame concert series.
In addition to his work as a composer of concert music, Neal is a passionate performer and composer of jazz, and can be heard regularly performing in Asheville, NC, and has performed previously with Bob Mintzer, Paquito D'Rivera, Kurt Elling, Michael Phillip Mossman, Donny McCaslin, and Mike Crotty, among others.
Neal hold degrees in Music Composition (DMA) and Theory (MM) from Michigan State University, and in Music Composition (MM), Business (MBA), and Saxophone Performance (BM) from Western Michigan University. His primary instructors in composition were David Biedenbender, Alexis Bacon, Richard Adams, and C. Curtis Smith. His primary instructors in saxophone were Andrew Rathbun, Trent Kynaston, and Laurie Sears.
Neal currently serves on the faculty of East Tennessee State University, where he serves as Director of Music Theory and Composition, teaches Music Composition, Music Theory and Aural Skills, and conducts the ETSU New Music Ensemble.