Elliot Simpson
The guitarist Elliot Simpson has given the world premieres of works by significant artists such as Sofia Gubaidulina, Michael Finnissy, Alvin Lucier, Larry Polansky and Walter Zimmermann and has collaborated with numerous famous and diverse young composers and musicians on the creation of new music. At the same time, he devotes himself to exploring lesser-known areas of the repertory for guitar and plucked instruments and devises programmes in which seldom-performed historical compositions engage in dialogue with contemporary voices.
He has performed in numerous cultural centres worldwide, including in San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Mexico City, Santiago de Chile, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, London, Madrid, Amsterdam, Cologne, Berlin, Salzburg and Shanghai. His programming both in his concerts and in masterclasses and workshops ranges from delicate Renaissance fantasias to complex experimental works of the post-war era.
His recordings reflect his multi-faceted focus on innovation and rediscovery. His discography includes albums of partitas for the gallichon (a small type of lute) by Giuseppe Antonio Brescianello and of lute fantasies by the Renaissance composer Giovanni Battista Dalla Gostena, as well as Walter Zimmermann’s complete works for guitar and Hans Werner Henze’s Royal Winter Music, based on characters from Shakespeare’s plays. His other albums include Guitars, Streets, Resonances with the guitarist James Moore (2020) and Things To Be Heard With A Single Ear, featuring compositions by Ellen C. Corvito and Philip Corner (2021).
Elliot Simpson grew up in New Mexico and studied at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music with David Tanenbaum and at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague with Zoran Dukić. There he received the famous Huygens Grant from the Netherlands Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and completed his master’s degree as a soloist and chamber musician with distinction, due to his exceptional contribution to new music. He went on to earn a doctorate in music from the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid.