User:Angels-egg/Simon bass

History
Simon Bass (born April 5th 1966) is an award-winning British composer and songwriter.

Born in Portsmouth, England, Bass spent a significant part of his childhood in the U.S. where his father served in the Royal Navy.

As a teenager he studied piano with Dennis Page and singing with Kathleen Joyce before going to Worcester College, Oxford, as a Choral Scholar to study music with Robert Sherlaw Johnson.

He released his first solo album of songs The First Fall of The Rain in 1987 while still at Oxford. In 1989 he signed to Beaumont Productions, the record company offshoot of Eden Studios, London.

In 1991 he signed to Gang Forward, part of the Hit n Run group who managed and published, amongst others, Phil Collins and Genesis.

1994 he started his long collaboration with Peter Stuart and Rapido TV. Over the next nine years he wrote the music for many of the iconic TV shows which pioneered a new style of alternative program making. These included Eurotrash, The Girlie Show, Baad Ass TV, Fortean TV, Channel Hopping and Without Walls.

By the late 1990’s Bass was prolific in his composition for Film, TV and Advertising in the UK and by 1998 his work featured on several regular TV shows on Channel 4 alone.

Also in 1998 he composed the music for the Royal Shakespeare Company’s infamous version of Bartholomew Fair by Ben Johnson. Directed by Laurence Boswell, this raucous production featured outrageously aggressive Drum n Bass and thrash metal music and was loved and hated by audiences alike.

Bartholomew Fair was the start of his collaboration with Laurence Boswell. In 2002 Boswell asked Bass to compose the music for the play Up For Grabs, Madonna’s West End debut. Music Week described it: “The music added up to what is perhaps the first truly 21st Century music score”. The resulting soundtrack was released on Camembert Electrique, Simon Bass’ own record label.

The film-maker Nik Powell saw Up For Grabs and commissioned him to compose the music for the Jamaican reggae movie, One Love starring Bob Marley’s son, Ky-mani Marley. The soundtrack was awarded Best Soundtrack at the Monaco Film Festival 2006.

In 2007, Bass returned to his roots and composed The Narrow Road To The Deep North. This 35 minute, five-movement composition was scored for Tenor, Small Choir and Chamber Orchestra and was composed around the Haikus of Matsuo Basho. The work was commissioned by the Merchant Taylor’s Company to celebrate Sir David Brewer’s year as Lord Mayor of London. For it, Bass was nominated for British Composer of the Year 2007.

Simon has worked as conductor and music director in most parts of the music industry. He has recently been seen in The All Star Talent Show (Channel 5) and It’s Now Or Never (ITV1) as musical mentor and music director.

In 2007, Bass founded Angel’s Egg Music, a music production company that provides music and Audio Post production services to the Film, TV and advertising industries from their three studio complex in Ladbroke Grove, London.

Simon is on the U.S. board of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Current projects include:

The Interesting Thoughts of Edward Monkton: 13 animated episodes for the BBC for broadcast Spring 2010.

Musical version of Pinocchio for the Royal Shakespeare Company

Album of his songs slated for release May 2010

Just When: International wildlife protection fundraising project: modern versions of the Just So Stories, Audio CD and planned TV concert. October 2010

AWARDS in 2009:

Silver Lion at the Cannes Advertising Festival for MTV ‘Knifecrime’ Chip Shop Awards: Best Viral and Grand Prix

Albums:

The First Fall of The Rain 1987 Dear Father Christmas 1998 (Musical for Children) Up For Grabs 2003 The Narrow Road To The Deep North 2005