East Studio Building, JS324
Education
- Ph.D. in Music Composition, Harvard University, 1994
- A.M. in Music Composition, Harvard University, 1992
- B.M. in Music Composition, cum laude, University of Southern California, 1986
Roger Neill is associate professor of music in composition: music scoring for visual media at the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music.
He is a celebrated composer, conductor, and recording artist known for his distinctive and expressive music for film, television, video games, musical theater, and the concert hall. His acclaimed scoring work includes films such as 20th Century Women, Beginners, Don’t Think Twice, and Marie Antoinette, and major television series such as Amazon’s Mozart in the Jungle and Fox TV’s long-running series King of the Hill.
A significant force in video game music, Neill has contributed to numerous AAA titles, often in partnership with Danish composer Jesper Kyd. His music appears in blockbuster franchises such as Assassin’s Creed: Revelations, Borderlands 2, Darksiders 2, State of Decay, Heroes & Generals, and Warhammer.
As an arranger, orchestrator, and conductor, Neill has collaborated with Beck, Michael Jackson, John Legend, Spoon, Stereolab, and the Kronos Quartet. He has a long-standing collaboration with the French electronica duo AIR, leading orchestral performances at the Hollywood Bowl and Salle Pleyel in Paris. His expertise extends beyond composition—he served as a historical music consultant on Marie Antoinette and as a script consultant and conducting coach on Mozart in the Jungle for actors Gael García Bernal and Malcolm McDowell.
Neill is a dedicated educator and academic. He studied composition and flute at the University of Southern California before earning an A.M. and a Ph.D. in Music Composition from Harvard University, where he studied under Earl Kim, Donald Martino, Bernard Rands, and Ivan Tcherepnin. Passionate about developing curricula for game and film music composition, he has mentored emerging composers and fostered interdisciplinary collaborations between music, technology, and media.
Neill’s work has earned him an Emmy Award for King of the Hill, Golden Globe for Mozart in the Jungle, and numerous American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers (ASCAP), Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI), and Society of European Stage Authors and Composers (SESAC) awards. In recognition of his contributions, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 2020 and the Recording Academy in 2023.
Articles, playlists, and more information may be found at rogerneill.com.