“Liverpool’s Mark Simpson has been made the BBC Philharmonic’s new Composer in Association,” writes Catherine Jones in Wednesday’s (2/26) Liverpool Echo (Great Britain). “The former King David’s schoolboy, who at 17 won both the BBC Young Musician and Young Composer of the Year competitions, will take up the role in September. Today the 26-year-old composer and clarinetist said he was ‘thrilled’ to be appointed. … ‘To be given the opportunity to develop my work and build a solid relationship with an orchestra of such calibre is a dream. It’s not an appointment you apply for, you get chosen. And it’s part of a new initiative by the BBC Philharmonic to focus on talent from the North of England. In the past the Composer in Association has been people like James MacMillan and Peter Maxwell Davies, so it’s amazing to follow in the footsteps of these great British composers. … I get to write pieces for the orchestra for the next three or four years.’ The appointment makes him one of the youngest ever composers to be given a formal role with a major British orchestra, alongside classical music luminaries like Thomas Adès and Mark-Anthony Turnage, who were given big breaks in their twenties.”
Posted February 27, 2015
