Mark Simpson won the coveted title of BBC Young Musician of the Year in May 2006, giving an intense, highly musical performance of the Nielsen Clarinet Concerto at The Sage Gateshead, with the Northern Sinfonia Orchestra conducted by Yan Pascal Tortelier. Later in the year he was a winner in the senior category of the BBC Proms/Guardian Young Composer of the Year, the first person ever to win both competitions.
Mark began his music studies at primary school, playing keyboard and recorder, but soon swapped to clarinet when he was offered the chance. He studied clarinet with Nicolas Cox at the Royal Northern College of Music junior department. He was principal clarinettist with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain for two years playing under conductors such as Sir Colin Davis, Mark Elder, Giandrea Noseda and Richard Hickox.
Since his double win, Mark has enjoyed a busy two years as both composer and performer. As a clarinettist he made his debut at the Wigmore Hall, toured the Middle East, performed in the United States as the Lakewood music scholar and appeared in the Beethoven Fest Bonn and the Mecklenburg Spielfest in Germany. He appeared as soloist in Proms in the Park at the Last Night of the BBC Proms 2007, where he performed the Artie Shaw Concerto with the BBC Concert Orchestra and Carl Davis.
Mark is deeply committed to the performance of new music and has commissioned works from Gary Carpenter, Patrick Nunn, Gavin Higgins and Stephen Pratt. In May 2008 he was invited to perform at the final of the BBC Young Musician of the Year competition, where he gave the first performance of a new piece by Gary Carpenter called Marking Time, for bassett clarinet and piano. In June he will give the first performance of a piece by Patrick Nunn called Prism, also for bassett clarinet. He recently gave three performances of the Mozart Concerto with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and Vasily Petrenko, again on bassett clarinet.
He is currently living and studying in Berlin. In October he will go to Oxford University to read music at St Catherine's College. He is supported by the Fame Academy education bursary.
Mark was interviewed by Charlotte Cripps of The Independent ahead of the performance of the Britten War Requiem by the NYO at St Paul's Cathedral in January 2007. As on many other occasions, his credentials as a deeply serious all-round musician were clear. The lighter side of his character came through in this paragraph from the article:
Mark Simpson, who last year won both the BBC Young Musician and Composer of the Year awards, was first given a clarinet aged nine. Now his most prized instrument is his Peter Eaton Special Edition B flat clarinet. "It has gold bits on it, and sounds very nice. My dad's got a thing about buying me clarinets. He knows nothing about music, but he can't half pick a clarinet."
Mark has played Peter Eaton International model clarinets since April 2004. We have also made a bassett clarinet for him, in conjunction with that wonderful craftsman Tony Ward, for performances of the Mozart Clarinet Concerto and for the new works that Mark has commissioned for bassett clarinet.
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