Boyd Neel
Encyclopedia
Louis Boyd Neel was an English
(and later Canadian) conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.
and wanted to be a pianist as a child. His mother, Ruby Le Couteur, was a professional accompanist, and his father was an engineer. Destined for the Royal Navy
, Neel went to Osborne naval college and then to Dartmouth. Soon after he was commissioned, the armed forces underwent a drastic reduction (the so called ‘Geddes Axe
’), and Neel left the navy to study medicine at Caius College Cambridge. He qualified in 1930, and became House Surgeon and Physician at Saint George's Hospital, London, and Resident Doctor at King Edward VII’s Hospital, London.
In 1930, while practising medicine, Neel studied music theory and orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music.
and the Royal College of Music
. The Boyd Neel London String Orchestra (later The Boyd Neel Orchestra) made its début at the Aeolian Hall
, London, on 22 June 1933. After the concert, Neel returned to his surgery and delivered a baby. By December 1933, the orchestra was invited to broadcast by the BBC
. When Decca
offered Neel and the orchestra a contract, he left medicine to devote his full time to music.
Among the Boyd Neel Orchestra’s early releases were the first recordings of Vaughan Williams's
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Britten's
Simple Symphony
. Neel conducted the first music heard in the new Glyndebourne
opera house in 1934, in private performances, at John Christie's invitation. In 1937, Neel and his orchestra were invited to the Salzburg Festival
, for which Neel commissioned Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
. The orchestra toured Great Britain and Europe until 1939.
, Neel returned to medical work and the Navy, while continuing to conduct when time permitted. Britten wrote his Prelude and Fugue for 18 string instruments as a 10th birthday present to the Boyd Neel Orchestra in 1943. After the war, Neel resumed his musical career, conducting for Sadler's Wells Opera
(’50 Rigoletto
s’ he recalled) from 1944 to 1946 and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
for its 1947 and 1948 London seasons at Sadler's Wells, performing the Gilbert and Sullivan
operas.
Beginning in 1947, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra, he embarked on a series of world tours, playing in Australia
, New Zealand
, Canada
and the United States
, and appearing in festivals such as Edinburgh
and Aix-en-Provence
. Neel published a book about these experiences called The Story of an Orchestra in 1950.
, Ontario
, in which post he served for 18 years, reorganising and rebuilding the Faculty of Music at the University. Soon after his appointment he formed the Hart House Orchestra in Toronto and toured with it extensively, at, among other events, the Brussels
World's Fair
in 1958, the Aldeburgh Festival
in 1966 and Expo ’67. After this, he became Artistic Director of the Sarnia
Festival Opera House on Lake Huron
.
After Neel’s departure to Canada, the Boyd Neel Orchestra was renamed the Philomusica of London and continues under that name today. Neel was awarded the C.B.E.
in 1953 and was an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music
. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1961.
As a radio commentator, Neel was heard on such CBC programs as Sunday Concert, Tuesday Night, Concerts from Two Worlds, and his own Opera with Boyd Neel (1954). He also wrote a series of essays, under the headline "This Week's Music", for the CBC Times in 1959, and his writings have appeared in Opera Canada
, the Journal of Music Education, and the University of Toronto Bulletin. He was the subject of a CBC-FM series - The Boyd Neel Memoirs - in 1979. Neel became an instructor for the Student Conductors' Workshop (run by the OAC and University of Toronto
) at its inception in 1969 and continued to conduct with it until the late 1970s. In 1972, he became the first conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, continuing after 1978 as conductor emeritus.
After his retirement, Neel worked on his memoirs, which were edited and published posthumously by his close friend, J. David Finch. The book also includes an extensive discography of recordings of the Boyd Neel Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neel for Decca Records between 1934 and 1979. Neel died in Toronto at the age of 76.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(and later Canadian) conductor and academic. He is perhaps best known for revitalizing the genre of the chamber orchestra.
Early years
Neel was born in Blackheath, LondonBlackheath, London
Blackheath is a district of South London, England. It is named from the large open public grassland which separates it from Greenwich to the north and Lewisham to the west...
and wanted to be a pianist as a child. His mother, Ruby Le Couteur, was a professional accompanist, and his father was an engineer. Destined for the Royal Navy
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy is the naval warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Founded in the 16th century, it is the oldest service branch and is known as the Senior Service...
, Neel went to Osborne naval college and then to Dartmouth. Soon after he was commissioned, the armed forces underwent a drastic reduction (the so called ‘Geddes Axe
Geddes Axe
The Geddes Axe was the drive for public economy and retrenchment in UK government expenditure recommended in the 1920s by a Committee on National Expenditure chaired by Sir Eric Geddes and with Lord Inchcape, Lord Faringdon, Lord Maclay and Sir Guy Granet also members.-Background:During and after...
’), and Neel left the navy to study medicine at Caius College Cambridge. He qualified in 1930, and became House Surgeon and Physician at Saint George's Hospital, London, and Resident Doctor at King Edward VII’s Hospital, London.
In 1930, while practising medicine, Neel studied music theory and orchestration at the Guildhall School of Music.
The Boyd Neel Orchestra
For Neel, at this stage, music was still a hobby. He conducted amateur groups and was persuaded to form an orchestra of young professionals, whom he recruited in 1932 from the Royal Academy of MusicRoyal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
and the Royal College of Music
Royal College of Music
The Royal College of Music is a conservatoire founded by Royal Charter in 1882, located in South Kensington, London, England.-Background:The first director was Sir George Grove and he was followed by Sir Hubert Parry...
. The Boyd Neel London String Orchestra (later The Boyd Neel Orchestra) made its début at the Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall
Aeolian Hall may refer to:*Aeolian Hall , a concert hall near Times Square in Midtown Manhattan, New York City*Aeolian Hall , England*Aeolian Hall , a historic music venue in London, Ontario...
, London, on 22 June 1933. After the concert, Neel returned to his surgery and delivered a baby. By December 1933, the orchestra was invited to broadcast by the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
. When Decca
Decca Records
Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; however, owing to World War II, the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
offered Neel and the orchestra a contract, he left medicine to devote his full time to music.
Among the Boyd Neel Orchestra’s early releases were the first recordings of Vaughan Williams's
Ralph Vaughan Williams
Ralph Vaughan Williams OM was an English composer of symphonies, chamber music, opera, choral music, and film scores. He was also a collector of English folk music and song: this activity both influenced his editorial approach to the English Hymnal, beginning in 1904, in which he included many...
Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Britten's
Benjamin Britten
Edward Benjamin Britten, Baron Britten, OM CH was an English composer, conductor, and pianist. He showed talent from an early age, and first came to public attention with the a cappella choral work A Boy Was Born in 1934. With the premiere of his opera Peter Grimes in 1945, he leapt to...
Simple Symphony
Simple Symphony
The Simple Symphony, Op.4 is a work for string orchestra or string quartet by Benjamin Britten.It was written as a piece for string orchestra and received its first performance in 1934 in Norwich, with Britten conducting an amateur orchestra....
. Neel conducted the first music heard in the new Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne
Glyndebourne is a country house, thought to be about six hundred years old, located near Lewes in East Sussex, England. It is also the site of an opera house which, with the exception of its closing during the Second World War, for a few immediate post-war years, and in 1993 during the...
opera house in 1934, in private performances, at John Christie's invitation. In 1937, Neel and his orchestra were invited to the Salzburg Festival
Salzburg Festival
The Salzburg Festival is a prominent festival of music and drama established in 1920. It is held each summer within the Austrian town of Salzburg, the birthplace of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart...
, for which Neel commissioned Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge
Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, Op. 10, is a work for string orchestra by Benjamin Britten. It was written in 1937 at the request of Boyd Neel, who conducted his orchestra at the premiere of the work at that year's Salzburg Festival. It was the work that brought Britten to international...
. The orchestra toured Great Britain and Europe until 1939.
World War II to 1952
During World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Neel returned to medical work and the Navy, while continuing to conduct when time permitted. Britten wrote his Prelude and Fugue for 18 string instruments as a 10th birthday present to the Boyd Neel Orchestra in 1943. After the war, Neel resumed his musical career, conducting for Sadler's Wells Opera
English National Opera
English National Opera is an opera company based in London, resident at the London Coliseum in St. Martin's Lane. It is one of the two principal opera companies in London, along with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden...
(’50 Rigoletto
Rigoletto
Rigoletto is an opera in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi. The Italian libretto was written by Francesco Maria Piave based on the play Le roi s'amuse by Victor Hugo. It was first performed at La Fenice in Venice on March 11, 1851...
s’ he recalled) from 1944 to 1946 and the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
D'Oyly Carte Opera Company
The D'Oyly Carte Opera Company was a professional light opera company that staged Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operas. The company performed nearly year-round in the UK and sometimes toured in Europe, North America and elsewhere, from the 1870s until it closed in 1982. It was revived in 1988 and...
for its 1947 and 1948 London seasons at Sadler's Wells, performing the Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan
Gilbert and Sullivan refers to the Victorian-era theatrical partnership of the librettist W. S. Gilbert and the composer Arthur Sullivan . The two men collaborated on fourteen comic operas between 1871 and 1896, of which H.M.S...
operas.
Beginning in 1947, with the Boyd Neel Orchestra, he embarked on a series of world tours, playing in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
and the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and appearing in festivals such as Edinburgh
Edinburgh Festival
The Edinburgh Festival is a collective term for many arts and cultural festivals that take place in Edinburgh, Scotland each summer, mostly in August...
and Aix-en-Provence
Aix-en-Provence Festival
The festival international d'art lyrique is an annual international music festival which takes place each summer in Aix-en-Provence, principally in the month of July. Devoted mainly to opera, it also includes concerts of orchestral, chamber, vocal and solo instrumental music.-Establishment:The...
. Neel published a book about these experiences called The Story of an Orchestra in 1950.
Toronto and later years
In 1952 Neel accepted the post of Dean of the Royal Conservatory of Music at TorontoToronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....
, in which post he served for 18 years, reorganising and rebuilding the Faculty of Music at the University. Soon after his appointment he formed the Hart House Orchestra in Toronto and toured with it extensively, at, among other events, the Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
World's Fair
World's Fair
World's fair, World fair, Universal Exposition, and World Expo are various large public exhibitions held in different parts of the world. The first Expo was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All...
in 1958, the Aldeburgh Festival
Aldeburgh Festival
The Aldeburgh Festival is an English arts festival devoted mainly to classical music. It takes place each June in the Aldeburgh area of Suffolk, centred on the main concert hall at Snape Maltings...
in 1966 and Expo ’67. After this, he became Artistic Director of the Sarnia
Sarnia, Ontario
Sarnia is a city in Southern Ontario, Canada . It is the largest city on Lake Huron and is located where the upper Great Lakes empty into the St. Clair River....
Festival Opera House on Lake Huron
Lake Huron
Lake Huron is one of the five Great Lakes of North America. Hydrologically, it comprises the larger portion of Lake Michigan-Huron. It is bounded on the east by the Canadian province of Ontario and on the west by the state of Michigan in the United States...
.
After Neel’s departure to Canada, the Boyd Neel Orchestra was renamed the Philomusica of London and continues under that name today. Neel was awarded the C.B.E.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
in 1953 and was an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music
Royal Academy of Music
The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...
. He became a naturalized Canadian citizen in 1961.
As a radio commentator, Neel was heard on such CBC programs as Sunday Concert, Tuesday Night, Concerts from Two Worlds, and his own Opera with Boyd Neel (1954). He also wrote a series of essays, under the headline "This Week's Music", for the CBC Times in 1959, and his writings have appeared in Opera Canada
Opera Canada
- Citations :-External links:****...
, the Journal of Music Education, and the University of Toronto Bulletin. He was the subject of a CBC-FM series - The Boyd Neel Memoirs - in 1979. Neel became an instructor for the Student Conductors' Workshop (run by the OAC and University of Toronto
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, situated on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution of higher learning in Upper Canada...
) at its inception in 1969 and continued to conduct with it until the late 1970s. In 1972, he became the first conductor of the Mississauga Symphony Orchestra, continuing after 1978 as conductor emeritus.
After his retirement, Neel worked on his memoirs, which were edited and published posthumously by his close friend, J. David Finch. The book also includes an extensive discography of recordings of the Boyd Neel Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Neel for Decca Records between 1934 and 1979. Neel died in Toronto at the age of 76.