Biography
Candace Neal completed her Doctor of Musical Arts from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in December 2014, under the tutelage of Bernhard Scully. She also holds a Master of Music in Horn Performance from University of Massachusetts-Amherst with Laura Klock, and a Bachelor of Music in Horn Performance from Boston University with Eric Ruske.
As a freelancer she has performed with numerous ensembles from local community orchestras to jazz bands to chamber music. She was a founding member of the Movadi Winds, a Boston based freelance woodwind quintet that worked to bring music to smaller communities and to introduce them to this chamber ensemble. She is also committed to supporting new music for horn. In 2011 she was a recipient of the International Horn Society’s Meir Rimon Commissioning Assistance Fund. This grant helped fund a recital featuring four new works for horn. She is active in leading masterclasses at universities and workshops around the country, some recent events have been at the University of Georgia, University of Illinois, and Ball State University. You will find her playing with various ensembles around Dallas and beyond, including the Dallas Winds, Plano Symphony, and her chamber ensemble, Rivermist.
Candace’s students build solid fundamentals through exposure to a variety of music and practice techniques. With her quick wit and support, her students find joy in the hard work of learning to play challenging music.