Neil Craig

After graduating in 1990 with a Bachelor of Music (Percussion) from the Western Australian Conservatorium of Music, Perth, Neil freelanced as a percussionist in orchestras and contemporary music ensembles. He toured North and South America and Australia as principal timpanist with the Australian Youth Orchestra. Invited by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, he went to Malaysia to lecture in western music for a year in 1994-95.

Neil has had a long association with theatre as musical director, composer and percussionist. He also studied Latin Percussion and tabla; the latter drove him to Benares, India to study before coming to London to seek tuition from renowned tabla guru, Pandit Sharda Sahai. Since moving to London, Neil has worked with many Kathak and contemporary dancers and has performed in a variety of musical contexts, from Wes ítern orchestral to traditional Hindustani and ‘fusion’ music. As a dance class accompanist, Neil works for The Place, Birkbeck College and Irie Dance Theatre, amongst others.

In 1997, the London-based arts organisation, Pan Project, invited Neil to Kenya to work in conjunction with the British Council, producing the music theatre piece Pulling Down Babel. In 1999, Neil performed the music of John Mayer with violinist Erich Gruenberg at the Birmingham Conservatorium and Duke's Hall, Royal Academy of Music, London. Neil also provided tabla accompaniment on Rob Lane's acclaimed score for the 2000 BBC production, The Sins. He recently performed John Mayer’s score of The Jungle Book at The Haymarket, Basingstoke. A recipient of an On The Line Millenium Award, Neil travelled to Ghana in April-May 2001 where he conducted workshops with the Ghana National Dance Company as well as primary schoolchildren.