Founder and Director of the Brandeis-Wellesley Orchestra, Neal Hampton was born in New York City and raised in Philadelphia. He currently serves on the faculties of Brandeis University and Wellesley College and also is Assistant conductor of the Plymouth Philharmonic (MA).

Mr. Hampton has been engaged as guest conductor by the Savannah Symphony, The Rhode Island Philharmonic, The Handel and Haydn Society, The Tallahassee Symphony (with Marcus Roberts), The Springfield (MA) Symphony, and London's Westminster Philharmonic (concert tour to Nova Scotia), among others. Former Associate Director of Orchestras at the Boston University School of Music, he has led Boston University's Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra and Opera Theatre on many occasions including concerts at Boston Symphony Hall and Town Hall in New York City. He has also premiered numerous contemporary works and served as music director for theater productions at the Gloucester Stage, the Boston Conservatory, and Brandeis University. Past conducting posts include Music Director of the Genesee (NY) Symphony and the Lowell (MA) Philharmonic, Conductor of the Boston College Symphony Orchestra and Assistant Conductor of the Young Artist's Orchestra at Tanglewood.

He has written music for the concert stage, ballet, film and theater. Most recently, his musical adaptation of Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility received it’s world premier at the Denver Center Theater Center in 2013 under the direction of Tony Award Nominee Marcia Milgrom Dodge.

Mr. Hampton holds degrees in conducting and composition from the Eastman School of Music and Boston University School of Music. Additional conducting studies include master classes at the Pierre Monteux School for Conductors, the Conductor's Retreat at Medomak, and at the Tanglewood Seminar for Conductors.