Adès: Alchymia album review – immaculate recording of an extraordinary work
Mark Simpson and Quatuor Diotima make a convincing case for ThomasAdès’s 2021 piece to be simply one of the best chamber music compositions of our time
April 2020
Lockdown culture
'When I've tried to write about it, it's sounded meh' – George Ezra and more on coronavirus
In the second part of our series, we ask set designer Es Devlin, director Claire Denis, composer Mark Simpson and others about how the pandemic has changed their work
August 2018
Autumn arts preview 2018
War, peace, and everything between: the best classical music of autumn 2018
WNO takes on Tolstoy, Lothian’s other festival grows in stature, and Gershwin pays a visit to the Coliseum
April 2018
BBC Philharmonic/Schuldt review – Simpson's Cello Concerto is compelling and totally original
The premiere of Mark Simpson’s concerto – with soloist Leonard Elschenbroich – confirmed him as one of the UK’s most exciting young talents
July 2017
New Music Biennial review – from the startling and striking to the cinematic and scabrous
With 20 new works squeezed into a breathless weekend in Hull, there was a startling variety of contemporary music – from Hannah Peel to Mark Simpson – on offer in the city of culture
April 2016
Pleasure review – Lesley Garrett shines as the lady of the loo
Welcome to the Pleasuredome … Mark Simpson's opera debut
July 2015
Festivals 2015
The Immortal/Mark Simpson review – a blazingly original oratorio
Simpson’s new occult-obsessed oratorio, with Melanie Challenger’s libretto about the founder of the Society of Psychical Research, asks the existential question: is anybody there?
June 2015
Mark Simpson: death in D flat major
He is a visceral and wildly idealistic composer – but even Simpson was surprised by the scale of his new work about the afterlife, premiered at the Manchester international festival on 4 July
May 2015
Q&A: composer Mark Simpson
This year’s Manchester International Festival sees the world première of The Immortal, a new work for orchestra and chorus by one of Britain’s brightest young composers – who talks here about love, death and setting your brain on fire with music
May 2014
Education cuts mean classical music will be the preserve of the wealthy
On Sunday judges will choose a new Young Musician of the Year. Mark Simpson argues that cuts will ensure few children from low-income backgrounds have a chance of winning
November 2013
BBCNOW/Stern – review
John Adams's clarinet concerto was the highlight in a programme of 20th-century US works, writes Rian Evans
April 2013
BBCSO/Brabbins – review
A short work from composer Mark Simpson stood out in a revelatory programme, writes Guy Dammann
February 2013
Observer/Anthony Burgess prize-winning essay: An Unlikely Arena: New Music at the Last Night of the Proms by Shaun Lyon
A witty and perceptive review of the Proms performance of Mark Simpson's sparks took the £2,000 prize for best arts journalism essay
September 2012
Prom 76: Last Night of the Proms – review
Last Night of the Proms to open with piece by 23-year-old composer
July 2006
A mighty wind
His mum tried him at judo, gymnastics and trampolining. Then she gave him a clarinet - and the Young Musician of the Year was born. By David Ward.
