About
American composer, electronic music producer, and leader of her ensemble London Electronic Orchestra, Kate Simko blends distinctive influences from her hometown, Chicago, and formal training in classical piano and jazz. Kate’s music has been licensed by ABC Television, Victorinox, and Giorgio Armani, and she has written original music for films, commercials and shows featured on the BBC, Netflix and PBS.
After graduating Northwestern University’s music school Kate’s career started in Los Angeles interning on feature films, and then took a surprise turn as her live electronic music career took off. She spent her twenties performing at revered clubs and festivals across the globe, from underground venues in Berlin and Tokyo to the Montreal Jazz Festival and Millennium Park in Chicago. A prolific producer, her back catalogue includes three albums, numerous EPs, film soundtracks and original classical compositions. Notable achievements include her remix of Philip Glass’s Houston Skyline appearing in Billboard’s Top 100 Classical Chart and her house track ‘Go On Then’ ending 2011 in the Beatport Top 10 Deep House chart.
Furthering her orchestration and film composition skills, Kate moved to London, where she completed a Masters in Composition for Screen at the Royal College of Music in 2014. While at the RCM she conceived her innovative classical-electronic ensemble, the all-female London Electronic Orchestra. Kate & LEO have performed at venues and festivals worldwide, including the Royal Albert Hall, the National Gallery, iTunes festival, Latitude Festival, Bestival, MIDEM in Cannes, Le Poisson Rouge in New York and Wonderfruit in Thailand, among others.
The ensemble’s self-titled album Kate Simko & London Electronic Orchestra was released via The Vinyl Factory in 2016 to critical acclaim. In 2018, Kate teamed up with electronic music superstar Jamie Jones and sold out the Barbican Centre with their ‘Opus 1’ concert featuring a 28-piece LEO ensemble. The following year she turned her focus to orchestrating a concert with techno pioneer Carl Craig and the 70-piece Chineke! Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall, and is now Craig’s lead arranger, working with orchestras at all of his live shows.
Distinguished by organic sound recordings, spatial depth, and warm electronics seamlessly blended with live orchestral instruments, Kate’s music to picture has accompanied various documentaries, including The Atom Smashers (PBS Independent Lens), Banana Land: Blood, Bullets & Poison, BBC China, Sacred Journeys (PBS), and We Believe In Dinosaurs (PBS Independent Lens), which was selected for a commercial release by top Hollywood soundtrack label Lakeshore Records in 2019. Kate’s feature drama score, to the LA indie film 20 Weeks, was centered around her writing for LEO harp and strings, which has become a signature part of her scores.
Her latest feature score, for Underplayed, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival 2020, with a release upcoming on Lakeshore Records. In Autumn 2020 Kate joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music as a professor of Composition for Screen.
- Marcus Barnes 2020