Premiere of CHESTNUTS on July 28, 2022 at Andres Bello University in Santiago, Chile

“Finally, the most interesting piece of the concert, and this due to the amount of color, clear contrasts and variety of resources. “Chestnuts” (2020) by Andrew Earle Simpson was the third of the world premieres of the night, and without a doubt, it calls for more attention to be paid to this name. The public's reception was warm….”

— Alvaro Gallegos, adnradio.cl, Aug. 1, 2022 (Full Review)

about Three Women:

“Andrew Earle Simpson composed and conducted an orchestral score that carries the film exceptionally.”

— Lincoln Spector, Bayflicks (Full Review)

about the CD Birds of Love and Prey:

"The title work of this disk, Birds of Love and Prey, is a fascinating piece..."

"This song cycle features an amazing array of colors and moods in settings of texts by Keats, Tennyson, Aristophanes, and Barbier, plus several anonymous texts as well as two “bird cadenzas” in which the “words” consist solely of “Ee, yakakaee!”

"The initial sequence of songs serves notice of what an exhilarating ride this will be."
 
"This song ["The Owl and the Nightingale"] perfectly embodies the composer’s stated intention of contrasting songbirds with birds of prey, while challenging some of the assumptions that we tend to make about them. It's a fascinating concept that Simpson brilliantly realizes."

— Journal of Singing, January/February 2022 | Volume 78, No. 3, pp. 421–425
Review by Gregory Berg ("The Listener's Gallery")

"Andrew Earle Simpson’s imaginative, dexterous Birds of Love and Prey provides an extraordinary role for [soprano Deborah] Sternberg’s powerful, elegant voice. Don’t miss the cadenzas here- they’re an intellectual and aural treat."

— American Record Guide

about Agamemnon:

“...a shattering impact.”

— The Washington Post

about The Wind:

"We’ve [Cantate Chamber Singers] done almost 30 commissions. One of our finest was by Andrew Simpson, a professor at Catholic U. We commissioned him to write a score to a silent film called “The Wind,” with Lillian Gish… It was for a 10-piece chamber orchestra and chorus, and I was directing it to the film; there was no click track. I loved that kind of challenge."

— Gisele Becker, Music Director of Cantate Chamber Singers, quoted by Anne Midgette, The Washington Post, May 9, 2019 (Full Review)

“A splendid match of music, image” "Simpson has heightened its impact with a recurrent and unsettling wind theme, music that captures the desolation of the arid countryside, the wildness of cowboy life and the abandon of the dance."

— Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

about It is Time:

"Simpson’s It Is Time, in three movements, sets music to poems about beginnings and endings by Roberto Ifill, Becker’s husband. “The Sense of an Ending,” the first movement, begins with a haunting instrumental melody in G minor. The music permeates the composition, with variations on it heard in all three movements, though the chorus never sings the theme…Notable was Simpson’s writing for the wind trio and percussion, which performed his tone colorings with precision and emotion."

— Seth Arenstein, Washington Classical Review, May 19, 2019 (Full Review)

about A Crown of Stars:

“A splendid match of music, image” “…it’s clear that Simpson’s talents may be eclectic, but they are certainly not superficial.” “his textures are clean, rhythmically exciting and colorful. Simpson has scored the piece economically, calling for only 12 instruments and … using them masterfully.”

— Joan Reinthaler, The Washington Post

about Too Many Mammas (on Naxos album Hunting of the Snark):

“The best [score] is Andrew Earle Simpson's Too Many Mammas written in a hotsy-totsy jazz style to set the scene in a speakeasy where philandering is on tap along with the booze.”

— Philip Greenfield, American Record Guide

about The Outcasts of Poker Flat (at Capital Fringe Festival, 2009):

"The Outcasts of Poker Flat may be the best Wild West opera you'll ever see... It represents the best of Fringe [Festival]: genre-defying art that challenges audiences to open their minds and break down walls of preconception. Don't miss this one."

— Ben Demers, DC Theatre Scene.com, 2012

about The Furies:

“Tragically Good”

— The Washington Post

“...this opera had an almost mesmerizing Minimalist quality to it, which was appropriate especially for the music of the Furies...other styles creep into the modal melodic mix, like the boogie-woogie bass pattern in the piano during the trial scene...and the sighing bends of the chorus in the eighth scene.”

— Charles Downey, ionarts

about the CD Fireflies: Chamber Music by Andrew Earle Simpson (containing Fireflies; Tesserae, American Gothic Suite)

"Red Cedar Chamber Music has a reputation for creating and promoting quality new works, and the music on this CD is no exception. All three of these works could easily become standard repertoire pieces..."

— The Flutist Quarterly

about Wayfaring Stranger:

“A generous, unified sound did much to bring alive Andrew Earle Simpson’s evocative arrangement of “Wayfaring Stranger,” paired with a soaring solo from [soprano Deborah] Sternberg and an intriguing instrumental arrangement.”

— Alex Baker, Washington Classical Review, March 2, 2020 (Full Review)

about Flower-Terrible Memories:

“It’s a wonderful piece.”

— The Washington Post

about me as silent film composer (on The Harry Langdon Collection: Lost and Found):

“Andrew Simpson’s scores are the best things on the set...”

— Richard M. Roberts, Silentcomedians.com

about me as silent film pianist:

"...Andrew Simpson sounds like he has the potential to be another grand new find as a silent film accompanist.”

— Richard M. Roberts, film historian

about The Comic Roach: A Roadhouse Picture Show (at the Capital Fringe Festival):

“If you haven’t had the experience of walking from a 21st century DC street into a 1920’s-era California speakeasy and oldtime cinema, and somehow I doubt you have, then you owe it to yourself to see The Comic Roach: A Roadhouse Picture Show. It is, I can say without qualification, a completely unique theatrical event...magnificent”

— David Winkler, DCTheatreScene.com

about Summer-Night Songs:

“The best [score] is Andrew Earle Simpson's Too Many Mammas written in a hotsy-totsy jazz style to set the scene in a speakeasy where philandering is on tap along with the booze.”

— Philip Greenfield, American Record Guide

about Picking Peaches (cabaret song):

“When Tracy Lynn Olivera swung her hips and sang the naughty “Picking Peaches,” she seduced the audience to listen carefully to what she had to say. The audience ate it up!...the Warehouse [theater] Mainstage was jumpin’! It was a real dilly of a performance and it was very peachy keen!”

— Joel Markowitz, DCTheatreScene.com

about Silent Explosions, Invisible Jumps (silent film-dance-music project)

“What [the author] loves about the programs that are presented at Catholic University is that professors like Andrew Simpson take wild and wacky chances with newly conceived work...a freeing and joyful experiment in collaboration.”

— Karren Alenier, The Dressing

As pianist (on Albany album Still Life):

"Simpson has the awareness and fortitude to make an audience pay attention. He has a naturally fluid technique, and he coaxes an array of colors from the piano, from ear-splitting thunderclaps to tender murmurs."

— Patrick Hanudel, American Record Guide

about Tesserae:

“...dark and exotic, dealing with themes of lives lived in excess, with moments of wild celebration cut short by murder and mourning.”

— Diana Nollen, The Gazette (Cedar Rapids, IA)