Alison McNeill graduated with a Masters in Performance from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in 2013 with scholarships from the RCS Trust and ABRSM. She has performed as a soloist all over the UK, Holland, Spain, Germany, Austria, Japan, America and Mexico and has been broadcast on BBC Radio Scotland, BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and Spanish and Mexican TV.
As a freelance portfolio musician, Alison enjoys a busy and varied career as a Classical lyric soprano performing as a soloist in top venues including Glasgow Royal Concert Hall, Minami Aizu Concert Hall (Japan) and the National Auditorium of Galicia (Spain).
As gifted recitalist, Alison is the 2012 Winner of the Andres Segovia prize for Spanish Song and is the only non-native Spanish speaker to win this award. Alison has studied with the famous mezzo soprano Teresa Berganza, the late great Miguel Zanetti, Miguel Angel Arqued (Teatro Real), Jorge Robaina, Julio Munoz and Antonio Parejo in Spain and premiered new works by Spain’s leading composers Anton Garcia Abril and Teresa Bretal in the National Auditorium of Galicia and Atheneum in Madrid. She has also performed in the Manuel de Falla Auditorium in Granada and in the houses of celebrated composers Joaquin Rodrigo and Manuel de Falla. Other performances include The Lyre (Tokyo, Japan), Minami Aizu Concert Hall (Japan), The International Music Centre (Vienna), The Juung Vocal Series in Den Haag (Holland), El Cosmovitral (Mexico), Spain and a five state tour of America with contemporary vocal quartet Scottish Voices led by composer Graham Hair as well as a research Project on Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire with Jane Manning. Alison’s UK Concert work includes Canteloube’s Chants d’Auvergne with the Glasgow Chamber Orchestra, Haydn’s Scots Songs with Cantelina Chamber Music Festival on the Island of Islay. Top venues in the UK include Merchants House (Westbourne Music), Glasgow City Chambers, Paisley Abbey and Stirling Castle.
Opera highlights include Rosina in Prokofiev’s Bethrothal in a Monastery (Glasgow Theatre Royal & Edinburgh Theatre in a joint production between RCS & Scottish Opera, Manon in Massenet’s Manon (RCS scenes), Fox in Janackec’s Cunning Little Vixen (scenes) and Junon in Charpentier’s Acteon with Ayrshire Opera Experience, a Scots Language project in collaboration with the Robert Burns Birthplace. Oratorio performances include Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana, Haydn’s The Seasons, Mendelsohn’s Lobgesan
As a Traditional Musician, she is fiddler and singer in the award-winning Folk Rock band Reely Jiggered who won the 02 abc SoundWave Music competition in 2014 launching them to release their second album Kaleidoscope to critical acclaim and perform in many International Folk Festivals, most recently headlining the Celtival Festival in Italy. As one half of the McNeill Sisters Duo, Alison has performed for BBC Radio nan Gaidheal and Celtic Connections.
Alison is an excellent communicator and inspirational teacher which sees her work with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra Junior Chorus, Scottish Opera, the National Boys Choir of Scotland and finalists of BBC Choir of the Year Competition Inverclyde Junior Choir. Alison is in demand as a workshop leader and has given culture and heritage workshops in the UK, Mexico and Japan. Alison conducts various childrens’ choirs and has her own private teaching studio.
Her entrepreneurial skills are shown by her successful funding bids to deliver Scottish Heritage and Culture Workshops in schools and launch her new Folk for Folk Festival showcasing Scottish talent and sharing world folk music workshops for young people and adults in the stunning settling of the West-Coast of Scotland.