Mark Simpson

& Richard Uttley

clarinet & piano

Thursday 19th October 2023

7.30pm Morpeth Methodist Church

Programme (on occasion, the artists may make minor changes to the published programme)

Simpson Lov(escape) (clarinet + piano)

Simpson Barkham fantasy (solo piano)

Brahms Clarinet sonata No 2 in E flat major Op. 120

INTERVAL

Simpson Darkness Moves (solo clarinet)

Simpson Echoes and Embers (clarinet and piano)

Brahms Clarinet sonata No 1 in F minor Op. 120

Mark Simpson is an acclaimed clarinettist and composer.  He first came to public attention when he won the 2006 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition having played one of his own works in the final.  In the same year, he also won the BBC Proms / Guardian Young Composer of the Year competition.  Mark went on to become a BBC New Generation Artist after reading music at Oxford.  Mark now works with soloists and ensembles worldwide as a composer as well as maintaining his own solo career.  In his Morpeth programme, we are fortunate to be able to look forward to hearing some of his own works in addition to classic Brahms clarinet sonatas.

Mark's frequent recital partner, pianist Richard Uttley is in demand as soloist, chamber musician and recording artist.  In all of these roles, he frequently explores and champions contemporary repertoire.

'Clarinettist Mark Simpson proved to be something of a revelation in the concerto. Lindberg makes incredible demands of the soloist and if ever there were someone who could reasonably claim to be the Paganini of the Clarinet, then Simpson might be just the man.' Backtrack

Read more about both artists at the foot of this page.

More about Mark:

One of today’s most intriguing artists on the British music scene, it would be wrong to describe Liverpool-born Mark Simpson as either clarinettist or composer. His musical life is a symbiosis of his performing on the concert platform and pouring over his manuscripts. In 2022/2023 season Mark continues to premiere Alchymia, a new clarinet quintet by Thomas Adès dedicated to Mark and the Diotima Quartet, and in January 2023 his first piano concerto will be premiered by Vikingur Ólafsson and the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Ed Gardner.

In the 2022/23 season his piano concerto has further premiere performances with Vikingur Ólafsson under the baton of Ed Gardner with Bergen Philharmonic, in the Philharmonie Essen and with Louis Langrée and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.
His violin concerto which received premieres with the London Symphony Orchestra and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra performed by its’ dedicatee Nicola Benedetti will also be performed by her with Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra in Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Marcus Stenze and Cologne’s Philharmonie with WDR Koln and Cristian Mcelaru. Other forthcoming premieres in Germany include Simpson’s first opera, Pleasure at the Theater Erfurt in Spring 2023 and his orchestral work, Israfel with Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin and Robin Ticciati. His solo work for horn and piano, Nachtstück, written for Ben Goldscheider (as an ECHO Rising Stars Artist) continues to be performed in major concert halls across Europe.

In 2022/23 Simpson continues his partnerships with Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Jean-Guihen Queryas in performances of Helmut Lachenmann works touring to Vienna’s Konzerthaus and the Philharmonie Luxembourg. He performs Adès’s Alchymia with the Diotima Quartet at the 2022 Aix en Provence Festival, in Lucerne and Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie. As Artist in Focus in London’s King’s Place during 2021/22 season Mark curated chamber programmes with Leonard Elschenbroich, Richard Uttley, the Diotima Quartet and on a solo programme in collaboration with Philip Dawson on electronics, of 7 living composers Julian Anderson, Zoë Martlew and Philip Cashian were present for the premieres of their works on the programme.

Text reproduced from Mark's website.

More about Richard:

Richard has been recognised for his ‘musical intelligence and pristine facility’ (International Record Review), ‘amazing decisiveness’, and ‘tumultuous performance’ (Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph). He studied at Clare College, Cambridge, graduating with a double first in Music, and then at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Martin Roscoe. He won the British Contemporary Piano Competition in 2006 and the Young Classical Artists Trust auditions in 2011. He has released three solo recital discs to critical acclaim and made numerous chamber recordings. His playing has been broadcast on BBC Radio 3, BBC World Service, Classic FM, BBC Two, BBC Four, and Sky Arts.

Significant recital appearances include Auditorium du Louvre, Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, Klangspuren Festival (Austria), Konzerthaus Berlin, Modulus Festival (Vancouver), Royal Festival Hall, Sage Gateshead, Wigmore Hall, and tours of China and Columbia. Highlights this season include the Gershwin and John Ireland piano concertos, Open Chamber Music at IMS Prussia Cove, recitals in the Musikverein (Vienna), Elbphilharmonie (Hamburg), BOZAR (Brussels) and Gulbenkian Foundation (Lisbon) with horn player Ben Goldscheider, Wigmore Hall with violist Jordan Bak, and chamber music with composer-clarinettist Mark Simpson and cellist Leonard Elschenbroich at Kings Place.

Richard is a piano professor at the Royal College of Music and a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Reproduced from Richard's website.