Mark Simpson won BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2006 when he was 17 years old. Mark is currently a Music undergraduate at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. His piece Lov(escape), which Simpson wrote for himself to play at the Young Musician semi-final, was also a winner of the Guardian/BBC Proms Young Composers competition in 2006.

This recital of new pieces for clarinet and basset clarinet includes works by Mark-Anthony Turnage, Emily Howard, Gary Carpenter, Patrick Nunn and Kenneth Hesketh, along with Mark Simpson’s Lov(escape).

Mark Simpson writes ... "When I was asked to perform Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in 2008 with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, it was expected that I would play the work on a modern-day basset clarinet. Having purchased one and used it in performance, I wasn’t happy to leave it sat idly gathering dust in its case. In my eyes the basset clarinet is an exciting enhancement of the standard soprano clarinet, and its logical development: its lower range gives it a subtler and richer sonority than the soprano clarinet.

The works on this disc are a culmination of five years of actively working with and commissioning composers. My aim during this period was to develop the repertoire for the basset clarinet, and also provide a platform for composers in whose work I was interested and believed in; I was able to develop these relationships through the opportunities that followed my winning BBC Young Musician of the Year in 2006."