Simpkin, Richard Benjamin

Author & Composer

b Bloxwich, Staffs 1969. Eton College (music scholar); Gonville and Caius Coll Cambridge (organ scholar, BA/MA). His musical life began in the choir of Lichfield Cathedral, where as a violinist he also led the orchestra for two years, and was later its organ scholar. But it was at Eton that he came to understand the grace of God through Jesus’ death on the cross for him. After graduation he taught at Felstead School (Essex) for two years, and became a pastoral assistant at St Anne’s Limehouse. Since 1995 he has been Music Director of St Helen’s, Bishopsgate in the City of London. His work was first published in So Hear His Voice (Songbook and CD) by St Helen’s in May 2000; some 15 items are so far in print. He has supplied a monthly column ‘The Music Exchange’ in Evangelicals Now from 2003 to the present (2011), and from 2001 he has worked creatively with a group of Christian writer/composers, for the exchange of information, mutual criticism and encouragement in their Christian faith. Nos.2B*, 707, 1007, 1218*, 1313*