Stephen McNeff was born in Belfast and raised in Swansea where, encouraged by teachers, he developed an interest in composing. He studied at the Academy from 1970 to 1973, then worked as a theatre musician before moving to Canada where his interest in opera developed, which led to running a small-scale music theatre company and working with the Canadian Opera Company.
When he returned to the UK, his operatic work continued with successes at the Covent Garden Festival (The Wasteland) and commissions from the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (Gentle Giant) and Opera North (What I Heard About Iraq). His interest in orchestral music also flourished as Composer in Residence with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra (BSO) and works for the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra and City of London Sinfonia.
He has been nominated for three British Composer Awards, with Tarka winning the Best Stage Work award in 2007. Other works include 2117/Hedd Wyn for Welsh National Opera, Banished (Trinity Laban, 2016), The Burning Boy (BSO, 2018), and Beyond the Garden (Slovenia, Czechia and the UK, 2020-22). His Ballads of a Bogman premiered in California in April 2022, with other projects including works for Chamber Choir Ireland, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the National Symphony Orchestra in Dublin.