PER DIEM PROJECTS - Key Persons
Roger Neill wrote only sporadically until his fifties, and then in 1997 published Robert Louis Stevenson and Count Nerli in Samoa: The Story of a Portrait. Since that time, he has been principally devoted to writing books, articles, essays, and occasional reviews.
Much of his work has focused on artists, writers, and musicians of the fin de siècle, several of them Australians and New Zealanders, including Frances Alda, Katherine Mansfield, Syria Lamonte, Nellie Melba, Haddon Chambers, Bertram Mackennal and Margherita Grandi. In 2016 he co-produced the bestselling CD set From Melba to Sutherland: Australian Singers on Record for Decca Eloquence and in the same year published DIVAS: Mathilde Marchesi and her Pupils.
In 2001 Roger curated an exhibition of the Australian portrait photographer Walter Barnett for the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. Recently, he has been working with teachers to re-introduce the arts into the core schools' curriculum in Wales and was chair of the Friends of the Heseltine Gallery at Chenderit School in Northamptonshire.
He helped Sam Wanamaker to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe in London and was active in the restoration and revival of the 19th century concert hall at Blackheath. He was founding chair of Docklands Sinfonietta (Sinfonia 21) and of Endymion Ensemble. Roger has been chair of Music Preserved and secretary of Historic Masters, and also devised strategy for the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and other ensembles.
Roger was founding director of the Centre for Creativity at City University London and has conducted masterclasses and workshops around the world. Previously he worked in senior leadership positions in marketing communications including ten years each with Saatchi & Saatchi and Lintas (now Lowe). At Lintas he was Chair Australia & New Zealand and Regional Director for Asia Pacific. He then became Deputy Chair of WCRS Worldwide in London and World President of the International Advertising Association 1990-1992. Roger's working life started in London with the advertising agency JWT, while supplementing his income as a rock musician.