Simon read music at King’s College Cambridge followed
by piano accompaniment at the Royal Academy of Music. As a
student, he received the Gerald Moore Award as well as the
accompanist prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier, Richard Tauber and
Royal Overseas League competitions. He has recently been appointed
professor of piano accompaniment at the Royal College of Music. He
is an official accompanist for the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World
Song Prize.
Current and future plans performances of
Schubert’s Schwanengesang with Mark Padmore; a tour of
Sweden with Malin Christensson; recitals at the Wigmore Hall,
London with singers Karen Cargill, Sally Matthews, Andrew
Foster-Williams, Christopher Purves and violinist Carolin Widmann,
with whom he will also appear in Amsterdam, Paris and Madrid;
recitals at the Concertgebouw with Sally Matthews and Karen
Cargill; recitals with Dame Felicity Palmer in the UK and at the
Opéra Comique, Paris; UK recitals with the 2011 Cardiff Singer of
the World winner, Valentina Narfornita and playing for Thomas
Quasthoff’s masterclasses at the Verbier Festival, Switzerland. He will also present his own series
collaborating with young singers in London entitled “Spring
Voices”
Recordings include the songs of Debussy
(Deux-Elles) and Strauss (Champs Hill) with Gillian Keith; Warlock
Songs with Andrew Kennedy (Landor records) and Phantasy of
Spring (ECM) - contemporary works, including Feldman,
Zimmerman and Xenakis with violinist Carolin Widmann which
received a Diapason d’Or. Future releases include the complete
songs of CW Orr (Stone records) with Mark Stone and a CD entitled
Folk Stories (Challenge Classics) with Cora Burggraaf.
Recent highlights have included recitals
with Mark Padmore throughout the UK of Schumann
Dichterliebe and the Schubert song cycles; with Angelika
Kirchschlager at the Verbier Festival, Wigmore Hall and in
Ghent; with Sally Matthews at the Concertgebouw Amsterdam;
with Stephen Genz and Lucy Crowe for the ‘December Nights’ Festival
in Moscow as well as performances with singers including Dame
Felicity Palmer, Stephan Loges, Anna Stéphany, Robin Tritschler,
Elizabeth Watts, Joan Rodgers and Lawrence Zazzo.