Interview with Merryl Neille
Merryl Neille is an accomplished flutist, composer, teacher and collaborator originally from South Africa. Though she now calls Sydney, Australia, home, she has studied, performed, and taught in South Africa, Canada, the Netherlands, the USA, and Australia. She was Principal Flute of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra and has been Guest Principal with many orchestras, such as the Freestate Orchestra, Ann Arbor Symphony, and the Chamber Orchestra of South Africa.
She has led a musically diverse career, performing on concert flute, piccolo, Baroque flute, and electronics as a soloist, chamber player, and orchestral musician. Merryl has written numerous works for flute and piano, with her composition Winter Solstice for Flute and Piano (2020) winning the Flute Society of NSW Composition Competition.
Alongside composing, teaching, and performing, Merryl works at Flutes & Flutists and is the Director of the Australian Flute Festival.
Emma Claire: When did you start playing the flute and what made you choose it?
Merryl Neille: I started playing the recorder at the age of six, around the same time my older brother started and we learned together at a music school that offered extra-curricular orff, instrumental and theory classes. At age eight, the instrumental teachers at the school put on an open day educational orchestra concert and I heard and saw the flute for the first time. My mother asked me which instrument I liked and I chose the flute.
EC: What do you love most about the flute?
MN: I love the flute’s brilliance, its showiness and its delicateness and beauty. I am definitely a wind player at heart and of all the wind instruments, to me it speaks from the heart the most.
EC: What flute do you play on and what made you choose it above other brands and models?
MN: I play on a Haynes. I chose it for its responsiveness, its ease of mechanical facility and its range of tone colours. It is an absolute joy to play and look at.
EC: Have you had formal training on the flute through a conservatorium or university?
MN: Yes, I obtained my undergrad and masters in music performance at the University of Pretoria, another masters at the Conservatorium of Amsterdam and a doctorate at the University of Michigan
EC: How important do you think formal study is for a career in music?
MN: Although I am almost a career academic, I don’t think it is necessary to study at a tertiary institution in order to get a top flute job. The most important thing is to have a very robust theoretical and harmonic knowledge, an excellent teacher who suits your personality and learning style, and an eagerness to play as much as you possibly can, in whatever form you can. This could be chamber music, large ensemble playing, solo playing. Be willing to take every playing opportunity you can get.
EC: Having lived, studied, and performed in ensembles in the USA, South Africa, and Australia, have you experienced any significant differences in musical cultures and attitudes?
MN: The thing I love about music is that I can sit down and play with other people, not be able to speak a word to them and make the most incredible music with them. I don’t find it differs much. Of course there are different attitudes towards learning it, and different methods of getting there, but the music making, when all else subsides, is the same.
EC: As well as being a performer, you are also a composer, teacher, and collaborator. How do you find these different facets of music-making feed into your flute playing?
MN: Interesting question. I see it more the other way around, that my flute playing feeds into the other aspects. I usually play my flute during my compositional process, I play my flute to demonstrate ideas while teaching etc. The flute is my musical expression, my voice, and it is the source from which the other creative aspects flow.
EC: What are some of your favourite pieces of music and why?
MN: I love Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet because of its powerful emotive effect and genius use of harmonic shifts, character pieces and melody. And of course it’s wonderful flute moments. I just love Prokofiev in general.
EC: What has been your most memorable experience in your career?
MN: Performing in the Gabala International Music Festival in Azerbaijan was definitely a defining moment in my life. We performed about eight different programmes of big works, including Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, excerpts from Puccini operas, Beethoven, Brahms in the beautiful mountains. It was a surreal and very inspiring experience. Playing the Daphnis solo in Hill Auditorium in Ann Arbor was a big one. And singing in Mahler 2 at the opening of the refurbished Sydney Opera House concert hall after the pandemic was also pretty major.
EC: What advice do you have for someone wanting to pursue a career in music?
MN: Practice, be a kind human being, and say yes to any performing opportunity you can. And support your fellow musicians in listening to their performances as much as possible. Thank you for these wonderful questions!