London Symphony Orchestra Percussion Ensemble
Biography London Symphony Orchestra Percussion Ensemble
Neil Percy
The coming year sees Neil enjoying the joint milestone of 20 years as Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra and 12 years as Head of the Timpani and Percussion Department at the Royal Academy of Music. During this time, Neil has worked closely with many major artists and conductors and as a soloist with Sir Colin Davis, Pierre Boulez, Steve Reich, Karl Jenkins, Ravi Shankar, Kent Nagano and Elgar Howarth.
The EMI recording of Karl Jenkins Marimba Concerto and Triple Concerto for Percussion, Flutes and Keyboards, was released recently to wide critical acclaim, as was the Grammy nominated Bartok Concerto for 2 Pianos and Percussion for Deutsche Grammophon with Pierre Boulez, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Tamara Stefanovich, Nigel Thomas and the LSO.
In both live and studio situations, Neil has worked closely with many composers for film scores, notably John Williams, James Horner, Patrick Doyle, and Alexandre Desplat with their music for films such as Harry Potter, Star Wars, Braveheart and Twilight-New Moon.
Neil has also enjoyed working with many major pop and jazz artists including Herbie Hancock, Elvis Costello, Natalie Cole, Dave Brubeck, Joe Zawinul, Tony Bennett, Luther Vandross and Vince Mendoza.
Neil collaborated with Tim Garland in a star studded nine-piece group ‘Momentum’, including amongst others John Patitucci, Joe Locke and Geoffrey Keezer. Momentum returned in Autumn 2010, culminating in a joint concerto for saxophones and percussion which was premiered by Neil, Tim and the LSO in Spring 2011.
He co-leads the group ‘Caixa’ with Paul Edmund-Davies which plays a blend of world/jazz/latin-flavoured music.
As a clinician and educator Neil has given master classes at many leading conservatoires and percussion events in the UK, Europe, USA and Asia and has coached many of the worlds leading youth orchestras’ including the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra and the National Youth Orchestra.
Neil is the Zildjian cymbals ’Artist in Residence’, a Yamaha drums and keyboards artist and an artist for Evans Drumheads.
