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Dr. Neal Postma is a saxophonist based in South Carolina where he enjoys a multi-faceted music career. In addition to being an active performer and pedagogue, he works in both arts administration as the president of a national single reed conference and in the music business with D'Addario Woodwinds.
Neal is a founding member and president of the American Single Reed Summit which had its inaugural event in 2018 at Truman State University in Kirksville, MO. In addition to featuring internationally-renowned artists, the summit included over 120 recitals, masterclasses, and lectures. The next summit will be held at the University of South Carolina in October, 2020. As an educator, Neal currently serves on the faculties of Winthrop University and Claflin University where he teaches saxophone, clarinet, and music appreciation and directs chamber ensembles and the jazz ensemble. He previously held the position of MYP Director of Western Music at the Guangdong Country Garden International School (an IB accredited institution) near Guangzhou, China. Sought after as a clinician, Neal has given masterclasses and recitals at such institutions as the Cincinnati Conservatory, The University of Colorado, Colorado State University, Metropolitan State University of Denver, The South Carolina Governor's School for the Arts, and Denver School of the Arts. As a soloist, Neal has been performed at conferences and festivals around the world. He has been the featured artist at the Blue Ridge Saxophone Festival, Palm Beach Atlantic University Front Wave New Music Festival, Franklin College Saxophone Day, and others. Active in the saxophone community, he has also given performances at World Saxophone Congresses in Zagreb and Strasbourg, The North American Saxophone Alliance National and Regional Conferences, The US Navy Band International Saxophone Symposium, and the Society for Electro-Acoustic Music Conference. An avid proponent of new music, Neal has commissioned and premiered over a dozen solo and chamber works by composers such as Carter Pann, Adam Silverman, Marc Mellits, Anthony Green, Brendan Keenan, Matthew Browne, Greg Simon, and Hunter Ewen. Neal has personally led consortiums commissioning two concertos from Matt Browne, a work for two saxophones and piano from Grammy-nominated composer Carter Pann, and a piece for alto saxophone and electronics by Anthony Green. Recently he was a featured artist at the Front Wave New Music Festival in West Palm Beach, Florida working with composer John Fitz Rogers. In 2018 he premiered a work for two saxophones and piano by Adam Silverman at the World Saxophone Congress in Zagreb, Croatia. Neal Postma and Clifford Leaman recently recorded the work and it can be heard on Adam Silverman’s CD The Things That Go. In addition to representing D’Addario Woodwinds as an endorsing artist, he serves in their Woodwind Method Program. This program provides pedagogy and promotes products at universities, public schools, lessons studios and retailers, and conferences across the US. In this capacity, he has given over 100 clinics at leading institutions in both the Southeast US and California and supervises a team of clinicians from around the country. Neal is also a content contributor to the D'Addario Education Collective providing articles, discussion topics, videos, and graphics. In the summers, Neal serves as the Orchestra Manager for the Taneycomo Festival Orchestra in Branson, Missouri. This two-week festival attracts professionals and graduate students from around the country for nearly a dozen chamber and orchestra concerts. Neal holds degrees from the University of South Carolina (DMA), University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music (MM) and the University of Colorado (BM). His primary teachers are Clifford Leaman, James Bunte, and Tom Myer. |
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