School of Music

Bio

Neil Casey is the assistant director of orchestras at the University of South Carolina, as well as the conductor of the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra in Savannah, Georgia. At USC, he teaches conducting, violin, chamber music, conducts Opera at USC and the USC Campus Orchestra, an ensemble that he created. Previously, Mr. Casey was the assistant conductor of the Augusta (Ga.) Symphony, a former faculty member at the Conductors Institute in Columbia and the Opera Master Classes in Charleston, South Carolina as part of Piccolo Spoleto. An active guest conductor, Maestro Casey has appeared with the former Savannah Symphony, Fort Wayne Philharmonic, Knoxville Symphony, Spokane Symphony, Richmond Symphony, Savannah Sinfonietta, South Carolina Philharmonic, Hilton Head Symphony, Hollywood Concert Orchestra, Newberry Festival Orchestra, Karelian Philharmonic Orchestra (Petrazovodsk, Russia), Greater Spartanburg Philharmonic, and with the Charleston Symphony. During the 2004-2005 season, Casey was the Music Director/Conductor of the Statesboro-Georgia Southern Symphony, where he led the orchestra to rave reviews and much growth in the area of orchestra personnel.

Passionate for opera, Neil has appeared with the Augusta Opera and conducted Claflin University's Celebration of Black Pioneers in the field of Opera featuring renowned soprano, Leona Mitchell. In his post as conductor of Opera at USC, Maestro Casey has performed Britten's Albert Herring and The Rape of Lucretia, Puccini's Il Tritico and La Bohéme, Menotti's The Consul and Amahl and the Night Visitors, Donizetti's Don Pasquale, Weill's Threepenny Opera, Niccolai's Merry Wives of Windsor, Offenbach's Tales of Hoffman, Mozart's The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro, Rorem's Our Town, and Argento's Postcard from Morocco (which won national prestige). In January of 2002, he was appointed to the position of Assistant Conductor of the American Music Theatre for a television production of Robert Ward's opera Roman Fever.

Committed to education, this is Neil's seventh season with the Armstrong Atlantic Youth Orchestra (Savannah, Ga.), where a fifth orchestra was added for the 2006-2007 season. In 1998, he was the founding conductor of the Greater Augusta Youth Orchestras, which are still active, and until 2005 served as resident conductor of the Shenandoah Performing Arts Camp every summer in Winchester, Virginia. A frequent conductor of regionals and all-states, as well as universities, Mr. Casey has appeared in his native Virginia, South Carolina, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Georgia.

Under the direction of Dr. Donald Portnoy, Neil earned both his B.A. in music education and violin performance, and his M.M. in orchestral conducting from the University of South Carolina, where he was the recipient of the 1997 Donor Award (awarded to the Most Outstanding Graduating Senior). An active violinist, Mr. Casey has served as the associate concertmaster of the Augusta Symphony, guest concertmaster with the South Carolina Philharmonic, Savannah Sinfonietta and still performs with the Excelsior Trio, which placed third in the nation at the MTNA Collegiate Chamber Music Competition in 1997.