Mark Simpson (b. 1988) is a UK-based composer of an acclaimed body of work and an internationally-renowned clarinettist, whose programmes champion music new and old. His music for the stage, orchestra, voices, and chamber forces has been celebrated by leading conductors, instrumentalists, and ensembles across a myriad of forms, poetic intensity is matched by technical assurance and expressive generosity.
As the first ever winner of both the BBC Young Musician of the Year and BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year prizes in 2006, Simpson's career has always reflected the indivisibility of his composing and performing selves. This national acclaim led to a precocious Wigmore Hall debut, as well as his first major works as a composer, now published worldwide by Boosey & Hawkes. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music, the University of Oxford, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Julian Anderson.
Simpson has appeared with the world's leading orchestras and conductors, including the BBC Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, and, of course, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. As a chamber musician his colleagues are equally esteemed. He has shared the concert platform with Isabelle Faust, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Antoine Tamestit, and Jean-Guihen Queryas. Recent premieres include Simon Holt's Joy Beast (2017), a concerto for basset clarinet, and Edmund Finnis' Four Duets (2012) for clarinet and piano.
Thomas Adès has proven a key collaborator. In 2023 and 2024 he joined the composer on the concert platform at the La Jolla Music Society SummerFest, performing works by Adès and others; in May 2025 Adès conducts Israfel with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2021 Simpson premiered basset clarinet quintet Alchymia with Quatuor Diotima. The waves of growing intensity in the sinuous figuration of the first movement seem conceived with none other than Simpson in mind; the serene Dowland-inspired third movement reflects his melodic intuition.
As a clarinettist Mark is passionate exponent of new music, having performed and recorded Magnus Lindberg's Clarinet Concerto with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and John Adams's Gnarly Buttons with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. He has performed the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto at the 2015 BBC Proms with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Sir Andrew Davis, and has also appeared as concerto soloist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Northern Sinfonia, BBC Philharmonic, City of London Sinfonia, BBC Concert Orchestra and Northern Chamber Orchestra, among others, with conductors including Vasily Petrenko, Gianandrea Noseda and Yan Pascal Tortelier.
In 2011, Mark's debut CD was released on the NMC label, featuring newly commissioned works by Patrick Nunn, Mark-Anthony Turnage, Gary Carpenter, David Horne, Kenneth Hesketh, Gavin Higgins, Emily Howard and Stephen Pratt. He has also performed as part of a Julian Anderson day at the Wigmore Hall, London. Further recital appearances as clarinettist have included the Royal Festival Hall, the Sage Gateshead, and at festivals including Aldeburgh, Cheltenham, Bonn Beethovenfest, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Trasimeno, Lammermuir and Spitalfields, with premieres of works by Simon Holt, Jonathan Harvey and Edmund Finnis. He has also undertaken residencies at the Banff Centre and in Denver, Colorado.
Mark played Peter Eaton International model clarinets from April 2004 but in 2017 changed to large bore Elites. We also made a basset clarinet for him, in conjunction with that wonderful craftsman Tony Ward, for performances of the new works for basset clarinet that Mark has commissioned and recorded.
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