Clara Hope Simpson
Clara Hope Simpson is a creative and versatile cellist who has performed as a soloist in venues including Wigmore Hall, Stoller Hall, and Kodak Hall. She has won solo awards including the Sir John Barbirolli Prize for Cello and the Musicales Prize at the Royal Northern College of Music (RNCM) as well as the cello concerto competition at the Eastman School of Music. She has performed as a concerto soloist with orchestras including the Manchester Beethoven Orchestra, the Oldham Symphony Orchestra, RNCM Repertoire Orchestra, and Eastman School Symphony Orchestra. She has worked with composers including Anna Thorvaldsdottir and Anna Clyne on their repertoire for solo cello, and performed in festivals across North America and Europe in solo and chamber contexts. In 2022, Clara was awarded the Exceptional Global Talent Visa from Arts Council England. She has been principal cellist of numerous ensembles and has additionally performed with groups such as Manchester Collective and Manchester Camerata. She has been a member of Eastman Collegium Musicum and RNCM Baroque Soloists, has dabbled in the five string Baroque Piccolo Cello, and has an interest in interdisciplinary artistic collaboration and improvisation. A passionate chamber musician, Clara is cellist of the Aestus Quartet. Her chamber music collaborators have included cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, violist Asbjørn Nørgaard of the Danish String Quartet, pianist Keigo Mukawa, and the Elias Quartet.
In the 2023-2024 season, Clara toured internationally to countries including France, Ireland, Sweden, Austria, Slovenia, Germany, Hungary, Serbia, and Italy. She made radio appearances on Radio Slovenija 3 and the Radio Television of Serbia. Clara performed at festivals including
Festival Ravel, Winchester Chamber Music Festival, Cellissimo (Music for Galway), Fairplay Chamber Music, Colluvio Academy, and Residart. She is a 2023-2024 Britten Pears Young Artist and attended Chamber Futures intensive in contemporary music with her quartet in Snape Maltings. One of her highlights from the year included giving the closing performance at the 2024 Royal Philharmonic Society Awards alongside Instrumentalist winner, Jasdeep Singh Degun.
Clara enjoys sharing her love of music with her community as an educator and advocate for music in schools. She began cello in her school’s fourth-grade orchestra and strongly believes that everyone should have access to learn an instrument. Clara has been teaching for over 10 years, and has studied pedagogy and Dalcroze. She has coached beginner through university-level cello, taught elementary school string programs in England and the United States, and is a Junior RNCM substitute teacher. She teaches private cello lessons in Manchester and is proud of her students’ accomplishments.
Inclusivity and accessibility within music and education are important to Clara. She volunteer teaches online with the ARCO Project in India and has been a Benedetti Foundation Ambassador. She has taught young cellists with Special Educational Needs (SEND) and helped to lead music workshops for children and adults within the SEND spectrum. Her quartet regularly leads musical workshops for school children and has collaborated with festivals such as Lymm Chamber Music, Lake District Music, and Festival Ravel in this area.
Clara holds a Master of Performance with distinction from the RNCM, a Bachelor of Music from the Eastman School of Music, a Bachelor of Arts in Chemistry from the University of Rochester, and entrepreneurial training from the Institute for Music Leadership. She has performed in masterclasses and studied short-term with artists such as Alban Gerhardt, Miklós Perényi,
Camille Thomas, Natalie Clein, Torleif Thedéen, Jakob Koranyi, Natasha Brofsky, Lluís Claret, and Richard Aaron. She is forever grateful for the support of her primary teachers: Hannah Roberts, Steven Doane, Rosemary Elliott, Mara Finkelstein, Toby Saks, and Shaun Diaz.
Clara plays a circa 1860 German cello on generous loan from the Carlsen Cello Foundation.