Michael Stimpson

Michael John Stimpson (born 1948) is a British composer. Early life and education Stimpson was brought up in Hammersmith and Wimbledon. His first degree was in Botany and Zoology, but immediately on completion he turned to music, and more specifically, the classical guitar. His twenties were taken up with study, examinations, concerts, and teaching, and his first contribution to a book. In 1980 he studied on the Advanced Course at the Royal Academy of Music. He received his doctorate in composition at the University of Southampton in 1997. During this time he published Café Music for solo guitar (Ricordi) and edited a book and six-part music series with Oxford University Press which included collaborations with Queen guitarist Brian May and flamenco guitarist Paco Peña. Career Stimpson’s first major chamber work, Sonata for Piano Trio, was premiered at the Purcell Room by the Dussek Piano Trio in 1997, and was described by The Strad as ‘…a finely poised, lyrical work…a joy to hear’. String Quartet No. 1 (Robben Island), composed after the breakdown of apartheid, was premiered in October 2000 by the Allegri Quartet at St. John’s Smith Square, London. The Allegri’s commission, A