About

American Composer, electronic music producer, and leader of her ensemble London Electronic Orchestra, Kate Simko blends distinctive influences from her hometown, Chicago, and training in classical piano, orchestration, and jazz.

Kate’s unique career started in Los Angeles interning on feature films, and then took a surprise turn as her live electronic music and DJ career took off. She spent her twenties performing at 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 albums, EPs, soundtracks. 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.

Kate moved to London in 2012, 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, 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.

Distinguished by organic sound recordings, spatial depth, and warm electronics seamlessly blended with live orchestral instruments, Kate’s music to picture has accompanied various feature-length films and TV shows, including The Atom Smashers (PBS Independent Lens), Banana Land: Blood, Bullets & Poison, BBC China, Sacred Journeys (PBS), We Believe In Dinosaurs (PBS Independent Lens), 20 Weeks, and Underplayed (Amazon Prime Video).

Kate’s soundtracks have held weight on their own, with The Atom Smashers receiving critical acclaim in Pitchfork to her most recent two soundtracks on top Hollywood soundtrack label Lakeshore Records. 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. In Autumn 2020 Kate joined the faculty of the Royal College of Music as a Professor of Composition for Screen.