Neil Ferris studied at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Royal College of Music. Now establishing a reputation as a conductor equally at home with choirs and orchestras, Neil combines his conducting engagements with his new post as Head of Choral Conducting at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama, where he is responsible for the internationally recognised postgraduate conducting course. He is also on the tutorial panel for the Association of British Choral Directors National Conducting Courses and has been a guest teacher for the Association of Irish Choirs and at Birmingham Conservatoire.

Neil is Music Director of Cardiff Polyphonic Choir, which in recent years has broadcast for BBC Radio 2, 3 and 4: In April they performed alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and National Chorus of Wales under Thierry Fischer in a live broadcast from St David's Hall on Radio 3 of Berlioz Roméo et Juliette. He is also the Music Director of Wimbledon Choral Society, which enjoys a reputation as one of London's leading amateur choruses.

Neil has been on the conducting staff of the Royal College of Music Junior Department since 2005. Neil also works regularly as a guest conductor with other choirs; he is Principal Guest Conductor of Birmingham Bach Choir, and recently conducted them on tour in Italy. He is also guest conductor of the Whitehall Choir, Convivium Singers, Kent Youth Choir, the Three Choirs Festival Youth Chorus, the award-winning Joyful Company of Singers and the chorus of Filarmonica Arad, Romania. As a chorus master Neil has prepared choirs for conductors including Richard Hickox, Thierry Fischer, Owain Arwel Hughes, Grant Llewellyn, and David Atherton.

Work with orchestras includes the New Queens Hall Orchestra, Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra, Brandenburg Sinfonia, Midland Sinfonia, Filarmonica Arad, City of Southampton Orchestra, Haydn Chamber Orchestra, Salomon Orchestra, and later in 2011 the period instrument ensemble Florilegium, performing alongside Cardiff Polyphonic Choir in a performance of Handel's Messiah in St David's Hall.