Mark Simpson (clarinetist)

Last updated

Mark Simpson
Born (1988-09-26) 26 September 1988 (age 36)
Liverpool, England
Genres Classical
OccupationComposer
Instrument Clarinet
Years active2005–present
Website marksimpsonmusic.com

Mark Simpson (born 26 September 1988) is a British composer and clarinettist from Liverpool. In 2006, he became notable for winning both the BBC Young Musician of the Year (as clarinettist) and the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year, making him the first and, to date, only person to win both competitions. [1]

Contents

Education

Simpson attended King David High School, Liverpool and attended the Royal Northern College of Music junior department where he studied clarinet with Nicholas Cox [2] and composition with Gary Carpenter. [3] After a term at the Royal College of Music, Simpson attended St. Catherine's College, Oxford University, reading for a BA in music from 2008 to 2011. He also studied composition with Julian Anderson at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and studied clarinet privately with Mark van de Wiel. [4]

Career as clarinettist

While at school, Simpson was principal clarinet in the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. [3] He won the BBC Young Musician of the Year title on 20 May 2006, playing Nielsen's Clarinet Concerto with the Northern Sinfonia, conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier at The Sage Gateshead.

The following year, he performed at the Last Night of the Proms in Hyde Park, London, performing Artie Shaw's Concerto for Clarinet. [5] On 3 July 2008 he played in Liverpool as the solo clarinettist for the premiere of Emily Howard's Liverpool, The World in One City along with the Liverpool Youth Orchestra and five hundred primary school children. [6]

Other notable concerto performances include Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto at the 2018 Proms with the BBC Philharmonic, [7] John Adams’s Gnarly Buttons with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and appearances with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia City of London Sinfonia and BBC Concert Orchestra. [1]

Simpson has also commissioned and premiered new works including Simon Holt's Joy Beast (2017), a concerto for basset clarinet [8] and Edmund Finnis' Four Duets (2012) for clarinet and piano. [9]

Career as composer

Simpson has cited a number of composers as influences on his work, including György Ligeti, Thomas Adès, Julian Anderson, Mark-Anthony Turnage, John Adams, Helmut Lachenmann, Cornelius Cardew, Pierre Boulez, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Luigi Nono.

He has also drawn inspiration from painting and poetry, in works such as Ariel (2009), which was based on the Sylvia Plath poem of the same name, [10] and a A mirror fragment… (2008), which was based on a poem by Melanie Challenger. [11]

Early works by SImpson include the ensemble piece It Was As if the Earth Stood Still (2005), which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3's "Hear and Now" in November 2005, [12] and Lov(escape) for clarinet and piano, which Simpson performed himself in the finalists' concert of the BBC Young Musician competition in September 2006. [13]

Simpson's first orchestral commission was Threads for Orchestra, for the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, which premièred at The Sage Gateshead on 1 April 2008.

In 2014 he was awarded one of five Sky Academy Arts Scholarships, during which he wrote his oratorio The Immortal, which was awarded the Classical Award at the South Bank Sky Arts Award in 2016, following its premiere by the BBC Philharmonic. [14] In 2015 he was appointed as the BBC Philharmonic's Composer in Association. [15]

Other significant works include Israfel (2015), premiered by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, [16] and sparks, which was commissioned for the 2012 Last Night of the Proms. [1]

Simpson's first opera Pleasure was commissioned by Opera North, the Royal Opera and Aldeburgh Music and premiered in 2016. Its plot concerns a woman, Val, who works as a toilet attendant in a gay nightclub. [17] The cast of the first production included soprano Lesley Garrett as Val and baritone Steven Page as Anna Fewmore, an ageing drag queen. [18]

The Violin Concerto was commissioned by the London Symphony Orchestra in 2019 and written for soloist Nicola Benedetti. [19] It was recorded at LSO St Luke's on 11 April 2021 for an online premiere on 29 April. [20]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mark-Anthony Turnage</span> English composer (born 1960)

Mark-Anthony Turnage is an English composer of contemporary classical music.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Adès</span> British composer, pianist and conductor

Thomas Joseph Edmund Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor. Five compositions by Adès received votes in the 2017 Classic Voice poll of the greatest works of art music since 2000: The Tempest (2004), Violin Concerto (2005), Tevot (2007), In Seven Days (2008), and Polaris (2010).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain</span>

The National Youth Orchestra (NYO), formerly the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, is the national youth orchestra of the United Kingdom, consisting of 164 members of ages 13 to 19 years. Auditions take place in the autumn each year at various locations in the country. The minimum standard needed to audition is ABRSM / Trinity Guildhall / London College of Music Grade 8 Distinction, though it is not necessary to have taken any examinations. In 2011, the orchestra was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society's Best Ensemble Award. In 2012, the NYO received the Queen's Medal for Music. In 2015 the NYO received the Royal Philharmonic Society's Ensemble award, which recognized particularly the launch of NYO Inspire as well as their other work.

Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.

Emma Johnson is a British clarinettist, who was appointed MBE for services to music in 1996.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Holt</span> English composer

Simon Holt is an English composer.

David Bruce is a British composer and YouTuber.

Gavin Sutherland is a conductor, composer/arranger, pianist and musicologist. He is currently Principal Guest Conductor for English National Ballet.

Gwydion Brooke was the principal bassoonist of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and a member of its "Royal Family" of wind instrumentalists, along with Jack Brymer (clarinet), Terence MacDonagh (oboe), and Gerald Jackson (flute).

John Wilson is a British conductor, arranger and musicologist, who conducts orchestras and operas, as well as big band jazz. He is the artistic director of Sinfonia of London.

Huw Thomas Watkins is a British composer and pianist. Born in South Wales, he studied piano and composition at Chetham's School of Music in Manchester, where he received piano lessons from Peter Lawson. He then went on to read music at King's College, Cambridge, where he studied composition with Robin Holloway and Alexander Goehr, and completed an MMus in composition at the Royal College of Music, where he studied with Julian Anderson. Huw Watkins was awarded the Constant and Kit Lambert Junior Fellowship at the Royal College of Music, where he used to teach composition. He is currently Honorary Research Fellow at the Royal College of Music.

Raymond Yiu, born 1973; is a composer, conductor, jazz pianist and music writer.

Julian Bliss is a British clarinettist and clarinet designer. He has performed as a soloist, chamber and jazz musician, notably with his teacher Sabine Meyer. He also designed the Bliss Clarinet for instrument manufacturer Leblanc.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alissa Firsova</span> Russian composer

Alissa Firsova is a Russian-British classical composer, pianist and conductor.

Charlotte Bray is a British composer. She was championed by the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, London Sinfonietta and Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Her music has been performed by many notable conductors such as: Sir Mark Elder, Oliver Knussen, Daniel Harding, and Jac van Steen.

Joseph Phibbs is an English composer of orchestral, choral and chamber music. He has also composed for theatre, both in the UK and Japan. Since 1998 he has written regularly to commissions for Festivals, for private sponsors, and for the BBC, which has broadcast premieres of his orchestral and chamber works from the Proms and elsewhere. His works have been given premieres in Europe, the United States and the Far East, and he has received prestigious awards, including most recently a British Composer Award, and a Library of Congress Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation Award. Many of his works have been premiered by leading international musicians, including Dame Evelyn Glennie, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Sakari Oramo, Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda, and the Belcea Quartet.

This is a summary of the year 2017 in British music.

Grace-Evangeline Mason is a British composer of contemporary classical music.

Gavin Higgins is a British composer who resides in London.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Mark Simpson: Biography". www.boosey.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  2. ↑ "Mark Simpson interview: Liverpool-born classical composer | Your Move". YM Liverpool. 3 January 2017. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  3. 1 2 "Mark Simpson, BBC Young Musician of the Year 2006". congletonchoralsociety.org.uk. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  4. ↑ "Bachtrack Composers Project: Mark Simpson (b.1988)". bachtrack.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  5. ↑ "BBC - Proms - Proms in the Park - London".
  6. ↑ "BBC - Liverpool - Capital of Culture - Capital of Culture Mark was commissioned to write a piece for the Last Night of the Proms. sparks will be performed at the Royal Albert Hall on Saturday 8 September 2012. Events".
  7. ↑ "Prom 4: Mark Simpson impresses in Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto". bachtrack.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  8. ↑ "Simon Holt & BBC Philharmonic: Joy Beast". BBC Music Events. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  9. ↑ "Edmund Finnis | Four Duets". Rhinegold. 1 December 2012. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  10. ↑ "Mark Simpson - Ariel". www.boosey.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "Bachtrack Composers Project: Mark Simpson (b.1988)". bachtrack.com. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  12. ↑ "Ensemble 10/10 Program Listings on Hear and Now". BBC Radio 3. 5 November 2005. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
  13. ↑ "Wigmore Hall Series of Young Musician Finalists: Mark Simpson". BBC Radio 3. 14 September 2006. Retrieved 19 January 2008.
  14. ↑ Catherine Jones (6 June 2016). "Liverpool composer Mark Simpson wins a prestigious Sky Arts Award". Liverpool Echo . Retrieved 3 November 2018.
  15. ↑ "Mark Simpson named as the BBC Philharmonic's new Composer in Association". Gramophone . 26 February 2015.
  16. ↑ "Mark Simpson – Israfel (World Première)". 5:4. 6 May 2015. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  17. ↑ Simpson, Mark (28 April 2016). "Welcome to the Pleasuredome … Mark Simpson's opera debut". The Guardian. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  18. ↑ "Pleasure; Tannhäuser – review". The Guardian. 1 May 2016. Retrieved 26 July 2020.
  19. ↑ The Violin Channel
  20. ↑ London Symphony Orchestra
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.