Simon Bainbridge (30 August 1952 – 2 April 2021) was a British composer, professor and head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music, London, and visiting professor at the University of Louisville, Kentucky.

Bainbridge was educated at Highgate School 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.

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. He taught and lectured at the Juilliard School in New York, the Boston Conservatory of Music, Yale University and the New England Conservatory of Music. In 2009, he held a residency at Yonsei University in Seoul. His work as a music educator won him first-ever British Composer Award for Inspiration, in 2016.

The Forum is pleased to present this recording of a conversation with Bainbridge from early in his career, recorded December 2, 1988.

Biographical Details and Key Works

Bainbridge was educated at Highgate School 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

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.

Bainbridge died on 2 April 2021, aged 68, following unsuccessful back surgery. Bainbridge was married to the English soprano and vocal coach Lynda Richardson, and father to the actress Rebecca Bainbridge

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[6]
2001 – Appointed head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music

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)