{{Short description|New Zealand musicologist, writer, and broadcaster (1943–2010)}} {{Infobox person | name = Adrienne Simpson | birth_date = {{Birth date|1943|11|26|df=y}} | birth_place = Wellington, New Zealand | death_date = {{Death date and age|2010|12|04|1943|11|26|df=y}} | death_place = Wellington, New Zealand | occupation = {{Cslist|Broadcaster|historian|musicologist|writer}} | education = Wellington Girls' College | alma_mater = {{plainlist}} *Victoria University of Wellington *King's College London *Charles University {{endplainlist}} | years_active = 1966–2010 | spouse = Richard Chilton | children = 1 }} '''Adrienne Marie Chilton''' ({{nee|'''Simpson'''}}; 26 November 1943 – 4 December 2010) was a New Zealand broadcaster, historian, musicologist and writer. Her works focused on biographies, cricket, music, popular culture and social commentary. She was a professor of general musicalship and musical history at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama for 18 years. Simpson regularly broadcast for the BBC and Radio New Zealand and was a research fellow at both the National Library of New Zealand and her first alma mater, the Victoria University of Wellington.
==Early life== Born in Wellington, New Zealand on 26 November 1943,<ref name=GaleEntry>{{cite web|title=Adrienne Simpson|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000159184/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=2cc5b9f8|work=Gale Literature: Contemporary Authors|year=2005|access-date=20 November 2022|via=Gale In Context: Biography|url-access=subscription}}</ref> Simpson was brought up in an engineering family in Kelburn.<ref name=DominionPost2011>{{cite news|last=Kitchin|first=Peter|title=The woman who told the story of opera|url=https://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/obituaries/4569803/The-woman-who-told-the-story-of-opera|work=The Dominion Post|date=25 January 2011|access-date=20 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110212092956/http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/obituaries/4569803/The-woman-who-told-the-story-of-opera|archive-date=12 February 2011|via=Stuff.co.nz}}</ref> She attended Wellington Girls' College,<ref name=DominionPost2011/> and graduated with a post-graduate Master of Arts degree in music history from the Victoria University of Wellington in 1964.<ref name=GaleEntry/><ref name=Grove2001/> Simpson relocated to the United Kingdom in 1965 and graduated from King's College London with a Master of Music title under Thurston Dart in 1966.<ref name=Guildhall2011>{{cite news|title=Obituaries: Adrienne Simpson 1943–2010|url=https://issuu.com/guildhallschool/docs/guildhall_school_news__spring_summer_2011|work=Guildhall School News|publisher=Guildhall School of Music and Drama|page=27|date=2011|access-date=20 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120174440/https://issuu.com/guildhallschool/docs/guildhall_school_news__spring_summer_2011|archive-date=20 November 2022|via=Issuu}}</ref><ref name=Grove2001>{{cite Grove|title=Simpson, Adrienne (Marie )|last=Walls|first=Peter|date=20 January 2001|id=47776}}</ref> She received a grant from the British Council to go Charles University in Prague and study Czech music.<ref name=DominionPost2011/>
==Career== For 18 years, Simpson taught general musicalship and musical history at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama as a professor. She played the flute, the piano and recorder as she conducted research and did writing.<ref name=DominionPost2011/><ref name=Guildhall2011/> Her research into lute music resulted in her becoming editor of the ''Lute Society Journal'' from 1971 to 1972 and she became interested in 19th-century Czech music upon developing a close association with Gerald Abraham. Simpson frequently broadcast on the BBC and Radio New Zealand (RNZ);<ref name=Grove2001/> she presented programmes such as ''Composer of the Week'' and ''Pressing On'' as well as major series on Czech music and opera during a quarter-of-a-century stint on RNZ Concert.<ref name=RNZObit/> She presented a five-part hour-long programmes on the New Zealand Opera Company's history during the 1950s and the 1960s.<ref name=DominionPost2011/> Simpson went back to New Zealand in 1983.<ref name=RNZObit>{{cite AV media|last=Flury|first=Roger|title=Adrienne Simpson Obituary|url=https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2446043|publisher=Radio New Zealand|time=00:22–00:41|date=7 December 2010|access-date=20 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221121065157/https://www.rnz.co.nz/audio/player?audio_id=2446043|archive-date=21 November 2022}}</ref> She was a research fellow of the National Library of New Zealand in 1991,<ref name=GaleEntry/> and was a John David Stout research fellow at the Victoria University of Wellington in 1993.<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio>{{cite book|editor-last=Avery|editor-first=Laura|chapter=Simpson, Adrienne|chapter-url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/CX3661530292/GPS?u=wikipedia&sid=bookmark-GPS&xid=45242142|title=The Writers Directory|volume=6|edition=35th|page=3882|year=2017|access-date=20 November 2022|via=Gale eBooks|chapter-url-access=subscription}}</ref>
Her works were published in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom,<ref name=ReadNZEntry>{{cite web|title=Simpson, Adrienne|url=https://www.read-nz.org/writer/simpson-adrienne/|publisher=Read NZ Te Pou Muramura|access-date=20 November 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221120174444/https://www.read-nz.org/writer/simpson-adrienne/|archive-date=20 November 2022}}</ref> and freelanced from her home in suburban Wellington and later Paraparaumu.<ref name=DominionPost2011/> Simpson's works focused on biographies, music, popular culture and social commentary.<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio/> Her books include '' Easy Lute Music'' in 1975 of which she was editor.<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio/> She authored ''Opera in New Zealand'' in 1990;<ref name=ReadNZEntry/> ''The Book of New Zealand Woman'' in 1991;<ref name=GaleEntry/> both ''The New Grove Dictionary of Opera'' and ''The International Dictionary of Opera'' in 1992; and co-wrote the 1992 book ''Southern Voices: International Opera Singers of New Zealand'' with Peter Downes.<ref name=ReadNZEntry/> She edited ''The Greatest Ornaments of Their Profession: The New Zealand Tours by the Simonsen Opera Companies, 1876–1889'' that was published in 1993.<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio/> Simpson authored ''Women Together'' in 1993 and the chapter ''The Orchestral Recorder'' for ''Cambridge University Press's Companion to the Recorder'' two years later.<ref name=Grove2001/><ref name=ReadNZEntry/> She edited ''Classic Kiwi Sport: Cricket'' in 1996;<ref name=GaleEntry/> co-authored ''Opera's Farthest Frontier: A History of Professional Opera in New Zealand'' with Geoffrey Newson that same year;<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio/> ''The Oxford Companion to Australian Music'' in 1997; ''Alex Lindsay – the Man and his Orchestra'' with Newson the following year;<ref name=ReadNZEntry/> and contributed to ''Sport, Society and Culture in New Zealand'' in 1999.<ref name=GaleEntry/>
In 2000, she wrote a history of Wellington City Opera in her book ''Capital Opera: Wellington's Opera Company, 1982–1999''.<ref name=WritersDirectoryBio/> Simpson contributed to ''The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians'' in the same year;<ref name=GaleEntry/><ref name=ReadNZEntry/> ''Alice May: Gilbert and Sullivan's First Prima Donna'' which was published as a commissioned work for American publishers in 2003;<ref name=DominionPost2011/> ''Hallelujahs and History: The Auckland Choral Society, 1855–2005'' in 2005 and ''The Centenary History of The Theatre Royal Christchurch'' in 2008.<ref name=GaleEntry/><ref name=ReadNZEntry/> She was a contributor to the ''Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volumes 2–5'' that were edited by Claudia Orange,<ref name=GaleEntry/> the ''Royal Musical Association Research Chronicle''; ''The Musical Times''; the ''Journal of the American Lute Society''; ''The Consort''; the ''Women's Studies Journal''; the ''New Zealand Journal of History'' and the ''Australasian Music Research'' journals.<ref name=Grove2001/> Between 1988 and 1990, Simpson was president of the New Zealand Opera Society, was founder-editor of Early Music New Zealand from 1985 to 1988,<ref name=Grove2001/> and was co-ordinator for the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians in New Zealand. She volunteered at the New Zealand Cricket Museum at the Basin Reserve and, before her death, was about to complete the book ''New Zealand's Wicket Women: A History of Women's Cricket in New Zealand'' that would be finished by her daughter and a colleague of Simpson's.<ref name=DominionPost2011/>
==Personal life== Simpson was married to Richard Chilton.<ref name=Guildhall2011/> She died in Wellington, New Zealand on 4 December 2010.<ref name=GaleEntry/>
==References== {{reflist}}
{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}} {{Authority control|state=collapsed}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Simpson, Adrienne}} Category:1943 births Category:2010 deaths Category:Writers from Wellington City Category:People educated at Wellington Girls' College Category:Victoria University of Wellington alumni Category:Alumni of King's College London Category:Charles University alumni Category:20th-century New Zealand women writers Category:21st-century New Zealand women writers Category:20th-century New Zealand historians Category:21st-century New Zealand historians Category:Cricket writers Category:New Zealand music historians Category:New Zealand musicologists Category:New Zealand women musicologists Category:New Zealand writers about music Category:Women writers about music Category:Opera critics Category:Academics of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama Category:New Zealand expatriates in England Category:New Zealand women historians Category:New Zealand women radio presenters Category:New Zealand radio presenters Category:BBC radio presenters Category:RNZ Concert