Anna is a PhD candidate at Birmingham City University in Songwriting & Technology, under the supervision of Songwriting Studies lead, Dr. Simon Barber.
Her other research interests include songwriting, confessional songwriting, popular music, production, music business, music industry, equality diversity and inclusion – specifically gender equality and neurodiversity, and the music of Ancient Greece.
She is a former lecturer in Music Business and Music Production at the University of Kent.
Anna's PhD project is titled 'What is the place of craft in twenty-first-century commercial songwriting?'.
As well as her composing and performing credits, Anna has worked extensively in the music industry. Until recently she was an elected member of the Executive Committee for the Musicians Union, an elected member of The Ivors Academy Senate and part of the Ivor’s Academy Awards Committee. Her credits include the newly formed ECSA’s (European Composers & Songwriter Alliance) AI & Technology working group and The Brit Awards Voting Academy for The Brits. Before this Anna was elected as the first female Chair of the Writers Committee for the Musicians Union, an elected member of The Ivors Academy Songwriter Committee and The Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Steergroup (EDI) (formally the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors / BASCA).
As part of her Equality, Diversity and Inclusion work, Anna is an ambassador for the F-List and was one of the first mentors for the SheGrows mentoring scheme in partnership with the Musicians Union and SheSaidSo in 2019. She has been a driver of change in the music industry, utilising her networks to support and represent creators, the independent sector, neurodiversity and women. She has been involved with various campaigns across the music industry supporting the independent sector and talent pipeline in both education and policy areas, such as the DCMS #fixstreaming campaign, removal of the top 100 chart criteria for The Ivor Novello Awards to allow great diversity and the Let the Music Move report on creative practice after Brexit.
As an artist, Anna has released various albums, eps and singles independently. Her latest single, Stormy Daughter was co-written with MP, DCMS member and Chair of the APPG for Music, Kevin Brennan, as a song of empowerment for those who feel sidelined, and is the first entirely solo produced outing for Anna. Wide Sky, her album from 2018, which was co-produced with Jez Larder (Amy MacDonald, Estelle, David Bowie), was critically applauded throughout the industry with regular play on BBC Introducing: The South. Featuring performances from Syrian musicians, as well as singers from English National Opera (ENO), Wide Sky fused Middle Eastern music with Western pop, continuing the world music theme featured in her previous album River Man. Wide Sky was funded through Pledge Music, with the campaign reaching 275% of its target funding in three days. Her previous EP Free Falling was also crowdfunded. The title track Free Falling was chosen as BBC Introducing: The South's 'Track of the Day' twice in 2016.
Her previous award-winning album River Man, (2012), took the listener on an epic musical odyssey through Roman history and heralded a change of musical direction. Voted one of RnR (Rock n Reel) Magazine’s albums of 2012, River Man features guest performances from Gary Brooker (Procol Harum), Patch Hannan (The Sundays, The Audience), and world-renowned Senegal virtuoso Jali Fily Cissokho. Influenced by the life, times, loves and legacy of Pompeii, Anna Neale’s River Man enthralled listeners with songs that chronicled universal themes of love and knowledge and the eternal question of the human spirit and human identity. Part of the River Man tour in 2013 saw Anna and her band performing at The British Museum as part of their 'Life and Death in Pompeii and Herculaneum' exhibition and at the University of Cambridge with Classics Professor Mary Beard.
