Simon Knighton is a composer and sound artist from Sheffield. He is an associate composer with Nonclassical and is studying for a PhD at the Royal Northern College of Music under the supervision of Larry Goves and Emily Howard. He is currently working on a series of sound sculptures that explore acoustic, electronic and autonomously produced sound interactions in spatialised settings. His ‘Sound Sculpture No.7’ was nominated for an Ivor Novello award in the best orchestral piece category in 2023. His Sound Sculpture No.5 won the 2023 Royal Music Association Tippet Medal.

By interrogating the meaning and flexibility of the term ‘sound sculpture’, Simon’s music brings areas such as spatialisation, the physicality of raw materials and the emergent tendencies of system-based procedures to the fore, leading to work that sits on the boundary of concert, installation, ritual and theatre. He enjoys working in close collaboration with performers - inviting them into the composition process wherever possible – and often creates bespoke collaborative methods for each project he undertakes.

Simon has composed concert music for ensembles such as Southbank Sinfonia, Riot Ensemble, Nieuw Ensemble, Ricciotti Ensemble, House of Bedlam, the Dutch National Youth Fanfare Orchestra, CoMA Manchester, Score Collective, Psappha, Camerata Temporalis, the CvA Symphony Orchestra and the I Solisti Wind Ensemble. In 2015 he was part of the creative team to win the Gi20 jury prize for an experimental street theatre commission for marching band and electronics. In 2018 he was a finalist in the Tromp International Percussion Festival in Eindhoven and was also selected as a finalist in the US-based Kaleidoscope Orchestra Composers Competition. His music has been performed in the UK, Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, France and Cuba. Recordings of his work have been released on Nonclassical and broadcast on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Radio 6

Simon is also a keen educator. He works as a graduate teaching assistant at the RNCM, teaches privately, and has given talks, conference presentations and workshops at various places around the UK.