Simon Bainbridge
{{Short description|British composer (1952–2021)}}
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Simon Bainbridge (30 August 1952 – 2 April 2021){{Cite web|url=https://www.classicalmusicdaily.com/articles/b/s/simon-bainbridge.htm|title=Simon Bainbridge - Classical Music Daily|website=Classicalmusicdaily.com|accessdate=3 April 2021}} was a British composer. He was also a professor and head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music,{{cite web | title=Composition:Staff| url=http://www.ram.ac.uk/study/selectadepartment/Composition/Pages/Composition%20staff.aspx|website=Ram.ac.uk| access-date=17 August 2009}} London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky, in the United States.
Biography
Bainbridge was born in London. He had his first major break with Spirogyra, written in 1970 while he was still a student. This work displays a passion for intricate and sensuous textures that remained the hallmark of Bainbridge's style. He was educated at Highgate School{{cn|date=August 2024}} and the Royal College of Music. After graduating from the Royal College of Music, he studied with Gunther Schuller at Tanglewood; his fondness for American culture was occasionally portrayed in works such as Concerto in Moto Perpetuo (1983), which contains echoes of American minimalism, and the be-bop inspired For Miles (1994). In the 1990s, his work took on a new expressive dimension such as in Ad Ora Incerta (1994) which earned him the Grawemeyer Award in 1997.{{Cite web|url=http://grawemeyer.org/1997-simon-bainbridge/|title=1997 – Simon Bainbridge – Grawemeyer Awards|website=Grawemeyer.org|date=20 July 1997 |access-date=3 April 2021}}
Bainbridge was head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music from 1999 to 2007, and was one of the first four professors to be appointed in 2000 with the Academy's status as a constituent college of the University of London.
File:Bainbridge, Simon 2021.jpg above the grave of Simon Bainbridge]]
Bainbridge died on 2 April 2021, aged 68, after four years of pain following unsuccessful back surgery.{{cite press release | url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/news/4216/Simon-Bainbridge-1952-2021/ | title=Simon Bainbridge (1952-2021) | publisher=Wise Music Classical | date=2021-04-02 | access-date=2021-04-08}} Bainbridge was married with one daughter.{{cite web | title=Rebecca Bainbridge in Profile article by Julie Robinson| url= http://www.lastminutetheatretickets.com/londonwestend/in-profile-rebecca-bainbridge/|website=Lastminutetheatretickets.com| date= 20 June 2015| access-date=20 June 2015}} His ashes are interred on the western side of Highgate Cemetery with the ashes of his brother Martyn Bainbridge, a stage set designer.
Career highlights
- 1969–1974 – Studied at Royal College of Music, London, then at Tanglewood with Gunther Schuller
- 1976–1978 – Forman Fellow in Composition at the University of Edinburgh
- 1983–1985 – Composer-in-residence at Southern Arts
- 1997 – University of Louisville Grawemeyer Award for Music Composition for Ad Ora Incerta{{cite web|title=1997– Simon Bainbridge|url=http://grawemeyer.org/music/previous-winners/1997-simon-bainbridge.html|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20140724182954/http://grawemeyer.org/music/previous-winners/1997-simon-bainbridge.html|archivedate=24 July 2014}}
- 2001 – Appointed head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music
- 2002 – Fiftieth birthday events in Cheltenham, Huddersfield and London
Key works
- String Quartet no.1 (1972)
- Viola Concerto (1976)
- Fantasia for Double Orchestra (1984)
- Clarinet Quintet (1993)
- For Miles for trumpet and chamber ensemble (1994)
- Ad Ora Incerta, Four Orchestral Songs from Primo Levi for mezzo-soprano, bassoon and orchestra (1994); poems by Primo Levi
- Four Primo Levi Settings for mezzo-soprano, clarinet, viola and piano (1996); poems by Primo Levi
- Guitar Concerto for guitar and chamber ensemble (1998)
- Chant for amplified chorus and large ensemble (1999)
- Voiles for bassoon and string ensemble (2001)
Selected recordings
- Ad Ora Incerta; Four Primo Levi Settings – NMC D059{{Cite web|url=https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/|title=Home|website=Wisemusicclassical.com|access-date=3 April 2021}}
- Herbsttag – USK 1224CD
References
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External links
- [https://www.wisemusicclassical.com/composer/60/Simon-Bainbridge/ Simon Bainbridge homepage at Wise Music Classical]
- [https://www.uymp.co.uk/composers/simon-bainbridge Simon Bainbridge page at UYMP]
- {{Discogs artist|Simon Bainbridge}}
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Category:20th-century British classical composers
Category:21st-century British classical composers
Category:English classical composers
Category:People educated at Highgate School
Category:Academics of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:Composers from London
Category:Alumni of the Royal College of Music
Category:Honorary members of the Royal Academy of Music
Category:University of Louisville faculty
Category:English male classical composers
Category:20th-century English composers
Category:British string quartet composers
Category:21st-century English composers
Category:20th-century British male musicians
Category:20th-century British musicians