Neuhaus was born on August 9, 1939 in Beaumont, Texas and attended high school in Houston. He studied percussion with Paul Price at the Manhattan School of Music, graduating with a master of music degree in 1962. He performed as a percussion soloist on concert tours throughout the United States with Pierre Boulez (1962-1963) and Karlheinz Stockhausen (1963-1964). In 1964 and 1965, he presented solo recitals in Carnegie Hall in New York City and in fiteeen major European cities. In 1966, he published on Mass Art Inc. four live realizations of John Cage's "Fontana Mix" (1958), an indeterminate graphic score originally intended for a tape piece, with or without additional instruments. Entitled "Fontana Mix-Feed", Neuhaus' realizations employed controlled feedback generated by placing contact microphones on percussive instruments and hooking the microphones up to loudspeakers positioned directly opposite the instruments.