Andrew Earle Simpson

Andrew Earle Simpson is a conductor and composer/arranger appearing with River Oaks Chamber Orchestra in Houston. He leads a program pairing early animated and film-related scores with his own music for "The Phantom of the Opera," in a concert built around music written to accompany moving images.

This program centers on music made to go with pictures. Carl Stalling's "The Skeleton Dance" is the score for one of the earliest sound cartoons, all rattling xylophone and sudden accents timed to bones clacking on screen. Martinů's "La Revue de cuisine" is a short jazz-inflected ballet score for a small ensemble of clarinet, bassoon, trumpet, cello, and piano, full of syncopated dance rhythms and witty instrumental exchanges standing in for kitchen utensils coming to life. Simpson's own contribution, music for "The Phantom of the Opera," extends that same silent-film tradition into new writing, giving a live ensemble the job of underscoring suspense, romance, and menace in real time alongside the film. Listeners can expect quick tempo shifts, close coordination between ensemble and screen action, and colorful, characterful instrumental writing throughout.