Simon studied
Piano and Composition at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of
Music, before going on to read Music and Gonville & Caius College,
Cambridge. He graduated with First Class Honours in 1995, returning a
year later to pursue his academic interests further. In 1997, Simon was
awarded an M.Phil. with distinction, and he completed his doctoral thesis
in April 2000. His research has focused on twentieth-century symphonic
music, and on the work of the English composer Robert Simpson in particular,
about whom Simon has published several articles. The BBC has invited Simon
to give a talk on this composer in 2001, and he has also been asked to
join leading academics in compiling a book of Simpson Studies.
As
a conductor, Simon studied with George Hurst and has worked with
several orchestras and ensembles in London and Cambridge. He founded
the Helios Orchestra of London in 1991, giving frequent concerts
with them at St. John's, Smith Square, to critical acclaim. Concerts
have included a wide range of repertoire, from Haydn and Brahms
to Tippett and Robin Holloway. As Guest Conductor of the Ernest
Read Symphony Orchestra, Simon conducted a performance of Mahler's
Sixth Symphony in October 2000.
In
the operatic field, Simon has worked as Assistant Conductor and
Chorus Master with Opera Europa (Il barbiere di Siviglia),
Opera Holland Park (Iris), Threshold Theatre Company (Acis
and Galatea), and European Chamber Opera (Lucia di Lammermoor).
He has recently toured as Music Director of gala productions with
ECHO, with whom he has also worked as repetiteur (Carmen, Madama
Butterfly). Simon is Music Director of Opera Brava, with whom
he has toured for two seasons, leading performances of Don Giovanni,
Il barbiere di Siviglia, Tosca, and gala programmes from the
piano. Other work as a repetiteur has included a production of Caterina
Cornaro with Julia Migenes-Johnson and Richard Bonynge at the
Queen Elizabeth Hall, and engagements with the Baylis Programme
at English National Opera.
Simon
completed the 2000/2001 Repetiteurs' Course at the National Opera
Studio, supported by The Friends of Covent Garden, and he was the
winner of the 2000 Sir Henry Richardson Award. He is Assistant Chorus
Master at Welsh National Opera.
