Dr Jack McNeill
Associate Lecturer
Profile
Biography
Jack McNeill is a composer, sound artist, DJ and researcher. Graduating in 2012 with a degree in Music (BA Hons) from the University of York, Jack began to work in sound engineering, composition and education in the UK and Germany. In 2021, Jack completed his PhD in Composition from the University of York. His doctoral work looked at the intersections between european club culture, performance and music, and primarily involved physical installations and electroacoustic composition. Jack’s more recent research is also concerned with contemporary club cultures across Europe, and considers the social performances bound up with these cultures through the lens of the interdisciplinary field of sound studies. Current projects involve (but are not limited to) considerations of voice and community in Europe’s club scene, comparisons of loudness, subliminality and civic identity in Berlin’s football and club scenes, and discourse around club soundsystems as social performances.
As a creative practitioner Jack has worked extensively in music education and community music. He has been the Composer in Residence and Artistic Programme Manager with Orchestras for All and has worked on a wide range of projects with the organisation. His primary focus has been to develop accessible, participatory pieces for young musicians of all abilities using notation and electronics. Highlights include a piece for full orchestra and electronics performed at the Leeds First Direct Arena, an Arts Council funded digital project with the National Orchestra for All and an online sound installation project with the Orchestras for All’s Modulo Programme (both in collaboration with visual artist Bryony Simcox). In 2021, Jack was commissioned to produce a brand new orchestral and electronic work for Liverpool’s Resonate Hub, in collaboration with spoken word artist Testament and body percussionist Ollie Tunmer. His work in music education involves extensive workshopping and collaboration with young people, and he has independently delivered workshops to young people and adults across the UK and in Berlin. His work has recently been exhibited and performed at the Copeland Park Gallery Backroom (London), the Centre for Contemporary Arts (Glasgow), the University of York and the University of Leeds.
Research
Overview
Jack's main research interests concern:
- Sound studies
- Dance Music Cultures
- Electronic dance music production and performance
- Electroacoustic composition
- Visual and participatory arts
- Creative collaboration in music education
Publications
Selected publications
McNeill, Jack. 'Site-making in Underground Club Cultures in the Midst of the COVID-19 Crisis', Journal of Music Health and Wellbeing, 2022.
Review: McNeill, Jack. “Living at Night in Times of Pandemic: Night Studies and Club Culture in France and Germany (Anita Jóri and Guillaume Robin Eds)”. Dancecult, 2024.
Baker, Sarah, Zelmarie Cantillon, Jennifer Chubb, Paul Graves-Brown, Suzy Harrison, Brett Lashua, Liam Maloney, Jack McNeill, Raphaël Nowak, Hilary Orange, Yorgos Paschos, John Schofield, and Aleen Stanton. "Do-It-Together: Punk Methodologies for Researching the Heritage of Popular Music." In The Intellect Handbook of Popular Music Methodologies, Edited by Mike Dines, Shara Rambarran and Gareth Dylan Smith. Bristol, UK: Intellect, 2025.
Teaching
Undergraduate
- Popular Music and Experimentation
- Sound Studies
- Dance Music Cultures
- Synthesis, Sequencing and Sampling
- Introduction to Sound Recording
- Writing and Producing Songs
Postgraduate
- Audio Cultures and Modernities
- Studio Live and Analogue Mixing
External activities
Invited talks and conferences
McNeill, Jack. 'Two modes of participation in Freeport', Audience Research in the Arts Conference, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, 3-5 July 2019.
McNeill, Jack. 'Dance Edits and the Situationist International: Strategies of Appropriation in Contemporary Club Cultures', Royal Musical Association 56th Annual Conference, Goldsmiths, London, 8-10 September 2020.
McNeill, Jack. 'The Nightclub as Instrument: Performing club culture in electroacoustic composition', Instruments, Interfaces, Infrastructures, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 11-13 May 2023.
McNeill, Jack. 'Ethnography as Practice, Practice as Method', Royal Musical Association 29th Annual Conference, University of Nottingham, MA, 14-16 September 2023.
McNeill, Jack. 'The Nightclub as Instrument: Performing club culture in electroacoustic composition', Instruments, Interfaces, Infrastructures, Harvard University, Boston, MA, 11-13 May 2023.
McNeill, Jack. 'The Sound was Terrible: Performing audiophilia in contemporary club cultures’', Dancecult 25, Technische Universität, Berlin, 24-25 January 2025.
McNeill, Jack. 'Just Making: Creative practice in the spaces in-between’, Newland Lecture, Hull University, 18 February 2025.
Performances
Crossfade, with the National Orchestra for All, Leeds First Direct Arena, 1 August 2017
Basel 8/04, Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow, 17 November 2018
Freeport, Copeland Park Gallery Backroom 22-25 November 2018
Artificial Hells presents Nodes, with Mila Moleman, Erin Robinson and Thomas Rosser, Simple Things Festival, Bristol, 19 October 2019
The Great Interstellar Orchestra, with the National Orchestra for All, 15 June 2021
iCreate, with Beat Goes On, Testament and Resonate Liverpool, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool, 24 June 2022.
