Mark Simpson, composer and clarinet
One of the most intriguing artists on today’s British music scene, Liverpool-born clarinettist and composer Mark Simpson’s musical life is a symbiosis of performance on the concert platform and poring over his manuscripts. Current highlights include Mark performing premieres of Alchymia, a new clarinet quintet by Thomas Adès dedicated to Mark and the Diotima Quartet; while performances of his own works include his first piano concerto premiered by Vikingur Ólafsson and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Edward Gardner; the German premiere of his first opera, Pleasure at the Theater Erfurt in Spring 2023; the Dutch premiere of his violin concerto (also premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra) will be performed by its dedicatee Nicola
Benedetti in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and his orchestral work
Israfel with Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati. His Nachtstück for horn and piano, written for Ben Goldscheider (as an ECHO Rising Stars Artist) continues to be performed in major concert halls across Europe.
Currently Mark continues his partnerships with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Jean-Guihen Queyras in performances of music by Helmut Lachenmann. Recent concerto highlights have included the world premiere of his own Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic, Lindberg’s Clarinet Concerto at the BBC Proms and Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He is visiting Fellow of Lady Margaret Hall and St Catherine’s College, Oxford (where he graduated with a first class honours) and was one of the 2022 Aldeburgh Festival’s artists in residence. Mark’s recording of his own Geysir and Mozart’s Gran Partita (Orchid Classics) won a Presto Recording of the Year award and was shortlisted for the 2021 Gramophone Awards. Simpson was recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society Composition Award in 2010, and the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year in 2006. His oratorio The Immortal received the South Bank Sky Arts Award for Classical Music in 2019.
