Mark Simpson

Composer and clarinettist Mark Simpson (b.1988, Liverpool) became the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year competitions in 2006. He was a BBC New Generation Artist from 2012-2014 and received a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Fellowship in 2014. Simpson’s oratorio The Immortal was premiered by the BBC Philharmonic at the 2015 Manchester International Festival to immediate critical acclaim. His first opera Pleasure was commissioned by Opera North, the Royal Opera and Aldeburgh Music and premiered in 2016. Chamber works include Hommage à Kurtág for clarinet, piano and viola, and a solo clarinet work Darkness Moves commissioned by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust. His most recent work is a Violin Concerto for Nicola Benedetti, premiered with the London Symphony Orchestra in April 2021. A collection of Simpson's chamber works, entitled Night Music, was released in 2016 by NMC and 2020 brought a recording of wind ensemble music on Orchid Classics combining Simpson's Geysir with Mozart's Gran Partita. Recent highlights included a feature as composer and performer at the 2020 Trondheim Chamber Music Festival.