Mark Simpson: ZEBRA premiere with Sean Shibe at BBC Proms
Guitarist Sean Shibe is soloist in Mark Simpson’s ZEBRA, premiered at the BBC Proms on 22 July. Scored for electric guitar and orchestra, the new work is inspired by a series of hallucinations documented by sci-fi novelist Philip K. Dick.
The world premiere of Mark Simpson’s ZEBRA (or, 2-3-74: The Divine Invasion of Philip K. Dick) is presented by the BBC Proms on 22 July at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Scored for electric guitar and orchestra, the new work was written for soloist Sean Shibe who gives the first performance with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Anja Bihlmaier. ZEBRA was commissioned by BBC Radio 3 and the premiere is broadcast live on Radio 3 and streamed on BBC Sounds.
Mark Simpson’s ZEBRA is the latest in a series of concerto-style scores for leading soloists, including a Violin Concerto (2021) for Nicola Benedetti and Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth (2024) for violist Timothy Ridout. The mystical visions explored in the new work can also be seen to be related to Simpson’s earlier oratorio The Immortal (2015) which delved into the eerie world of Victorian seances. The new 20-minute score and its title draw on the intense series of hallucinations documented by Philip K. Dick, the renowned sci-fi novelist, culminating in March 1974.
Dick claimed that a bright pink light, originating from a woman’s necklace, had uploaded mystical information into his brain. He heard cryptic messages, witnessed scenes from Ancient Rome superimposed onto his neighbourhood, and saw beams of red and gold energy. The source, he believed, was a benevolent being which, being camouflaged from view, he nicknamed… Zebra. Mark Simpson explains how ZEBRA is a “musical exploration of this wonderfully weird, multitudinous and complicated spiritual experience”.
“Dick became obsessed with Zebra and throughout his life would come to experience it in different forms: a humanoid life-form, Christ, The Holy Spirit, a false God. He spent the last eight years of his life trying to make sense of the various possibilities Zebra could be in his vast, diary-like series of notebooks he called The Exegesis.”
Mark Simpson describes composing ZEBRA for Sean Shibe: “Through his programming and performing over the years, Sean has proven himself to be one of the most daring, intellectually curious and formidable musicians of his generation. This piece could not have been written for anyone else. The subject matter afforded me a sense of artistic freedom that required a soloist who was ready to go to the limits: musically, spiritually, emotionally. And so in some moments of the piece I have certainly pushed the envelope (also for the orchestra too!) in the knowledge that Sean will be able to 'go there'.
“Writing for the electric guitar has been an exciting affair as the sonic possibilities are almost endless. But for the most part I've tried to keep true to what I believe is Sean's greatest talent: his power to captivate audiences through his searing ability to shape, mould, and craft beautiful melodic lines on the guitar. ZEBRA was written for and is dedicated to Sean Shibe."
“The work is cast in three movements. The first, 'Pink Beams of Light from God in the Gutter', is an attempt to relate musically how this overwhelming mind/body experience may have felt for PKD. It launches us straight in with an explosion, then travels through various orchestral textures that suggest that intensity, eventually petering out into stillness and silence. The second movement: 'Horselover Fat's Hymn of the Soul' is a response to the more spiritual/theological side of the 2-3-74 experience: the confrontation with 'God', if you will. The third and final movement, 'Firebright', was one of the many other names PKD gave to Zebra. It is a fast, relentlessly energetic dash towards a climactic ending.”
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra has announced Mark Simpson, born in the city, as its 2025/26 Artist in Residence with performances running throughout the season. Highlights include the UK premiere of Simpson’s viola concerto for Timothy Ridout Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth (25 September), the first performance of a revised version of The Immortal (26 March) and a concert by the RLPO’s contemporary music group Ensemble 10:10 with Simpson as soloist in John Adams’s clarinet concerto Gnarly Buttons (29 April). Chamber events feature Geysir for wind ensemble (14 January) and Simpson’s Lov(escape) and Echoes and Embers in a recital combining clarinet classics with contemporary works (11 May).
Forthcoming Simpson performances include his orchestral concert opener Israfel at Berlin’s Philharmonie with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Adès (22 June), a clarinet recital at the Edinburgh International Festival (6 August), the Swiss premiere of Hold Your Heart in Your Teeth – part of a composer/player focus in Winterthur (5/6 November), the Danish premiere of Nachtstück in Esbjerg (14 November) and the German premiere of Darkness Moves II by hornist Ben Goldscheider in Berlin (20 November).
> Further information on Work: ZEBRA (or, 2-3-74: The Divine Invasion of Philip K. Dick)
Photo: Katja Feldmeier