Simone Young | |
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 Young in 2010 | |
| Born | Simone Margaret Young 2 March 1961 Sydney, Australia |
| Education | Sydney Conservatorium of Music |
| Occupation | Conductor |
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Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor and academic teacher. She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.
Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ancestry on her mother's. [1] Young was educated at the Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney. She studied composition, piano and conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Commencing in 1983, Young worked at Opera Australia as a répétiteur under various conductors, including Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge, Carlo Felice Cillario and Stuart Challender. Young started her operatic conducting career at the Sydney Opera House in 1985. In 1986 she was the first woman and youngest person to be appointed a resident conductor with Opera Australia. She received an Australia Council grant to study overseas, and was named Young Australian of the Year. [2] In her early years, she was assistant to James Conlon, and Kapellmeister, at the Cologne Opera, and assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. From 1998 until 2002, Young was principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway.
From 2001 to 2003, Young was chief conductor of Opera Australia in Sydney. Her contract was not renewed after 2003, with one given reason being the excessive expense of her programming ideas. [3]
Young made her first conducting appearance at the Hamburg State Opera in 1996. In May 2003, she was named both chief executive of the Hamburg State Opera and chief conductor of the Philharmoniker Hamburg, posts which she assumed in 2005. [4] In 2006, she became Professor of Music and Theatre at the University of Hamburg. Critics of the magazine Opernwelt selected her in October 2006 as the Dirigentin des Jahres (Conductor of the Year). In December 2011, it was announced that Young would conclude her tenures with both the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic after the 2014/2015 season. [5]
Young was the first female conductor at the Vienna State Opera in 1993. [4] She conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when they performed Elena Kats-Chernin's "Deep Sea Dreaming" at the 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney. [6] In November 2005, she was the first female conductor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. [7] Her discography includes the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner and the complete Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner, where she was the first female conductor to have recorded either of these cycles. She has also recorded the complete cycle of Brahms' symphonies.
In August 2008, Young appeared as part of the judging panel in the reality TV talent show-themed program Maestro on BBC Two. [8] In December 2012, she was voted Limelight magazine's Music Personality of the Year. [9] In 2022, Young was that magazine's critic's choice as Australian Artist of the Year. [10]
In 2013, in commemoration of the bicentenaries for Richard Wagner and for Giuseppe Verdi, Young conducted the entire 'Bayreuth canon' of ten Wagner operas at a festival entitled Wagner-Wahn (Wagner Madness) in Hamburg, along with three rarely performed Verdi operas as a trilogy in September to November – La battaglia di Legnano , I due Foscari , I Lombardi alla prima crociata . [11] In March 2016, Young was appointed a member of the board of the Europäische Musiktheater-Akademie (European Academy of Music Theatre). [12]
Young had first guest-conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in 1996. In December 2019, the SSO announced the appointment of Young as its next chief conductor, effective in 2022, with an initial contract of 3 years. [13] Young is the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the SSO. [14] In February 2024, the SSO announced the extension of Young's contract as its chief conductor through the end of 2026. [15]
In 2024 Simone Young became the first woman to conduct Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival. [16]
Young is married to Greg Condon, and has two daughters. She made her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera while she was five months pregnant and conducted at the Vienna State Opera one month prior to giving birth in 1997. [17]
Young is featured in the documentary film Knowing the Score directed by Australian documentarian Janine Hosking, a biopic that "is first and foremost a captivating story of a dazzling 30-year music career." [18]
Young has received honorary doctorates from the universities of New South Wales, Sydney and Melbourne. She has been appointed an (AM) "for service to the arts as a conductor with major opera companies and orchestras in Australia and internationally".
In 2021 Young was named the Advance Awards Global Icon. [19]
The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music. They commenced in 1987.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2002 | Verdi: Requiem (with Opera Australia) | Best Original Cast or Show Album | Nominated | [20] |
The Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award is given to a person who has made an outstanding contribution to music in Australia.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Simone Young | Sir Bernard Heinze Memorial Award | awarded | [21] |
The Helpmann Awards is an awards show, celebrating live entertainment and performing arts in Australia, presented by industry group Live Performance Australia since 2001. [22] Note: 2020 and 2021 were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Simone Young – Simon Boccanegra | Best Musical Direction | Nominated | [23] |
| 2002 | Simone Young – Andrea Chénier | Best Music Direction | Won | [24] |
| Simone Young – Tristan und Isolde | Best Music Direction | Nominated | ||
| 2004 | Simone Young – Lulu | Best Music Direction | Nominated | [25] |
| 2005 | Simone Young – Simone Young Conducts Mahler | Best Performance in a Classical Concert | Won | [26] |
| 2008 | Simone Young – Turangalîla-Symphonie | Best Performance in a Classical Concert | Nominated | [27] |
| 2013 | Simone Young conducting the Hamburg Philharmonic – The Resurrection Symphony | Best Individual Classical Performance | Won | [28] |
| 2018 | Simone Young Conducts the Sydney Symphony Orchestra – Beethoven and Bruckner | Best Symphony Orchestra Concert | Nominated | [29] |
The Australian Entertainment Mo Awards (commonly known informally as the Mo Awards), were annual Australian entertainment industry awards. They recognise achievements in live entertainment in Australia from 1975 to 2016. Simone Young won one award in that time. [30]
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result (wins only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1995 | Simone Young | Classical Performance of the Year | Won |
The Victorian Honour Roll of Women was established in 2001 to recognise the achievements of women from the Australian state of Victoria.
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2001 | Simone Young | Victorian Honour Roll of Women | awarded | [31] |
| Year | Nominee / work | Award | Result (wins only) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | Simone Young | Conductor of the Year | Won [32] |
Bernard Johan Herman Haitink was a Dutch conductor and violinist. He was the principal conductor of several international orchestras, beginning with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in 1961. He moved to London, as principal conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 1967 to 1979, music director at Glyndebourne Opera from 1978 to 1988 and of the Royal Opera House from 1987 to 2002, when he became principal conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden. Finally, he was principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 2010. The focus of his prolific recording was classical symphonies and orchestral works, but he also conducted operas. He conducted 90 concerts at The Proms in London, the last on 3 September 2019 with the Vienna Philharmonic. His awards include Grammy Awards and the 2015 Gramophone Award for his lifetime achievements.
Eugen Jochum was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others.
The Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) is an Australian symphony orchestra based in Sydney. With roots going back to 1908, the orchestra was made a permanent professional orchestra on the formation of the Australian Broadcasting Commission in 1932. The orchestra has performed at the Sydney Opera House as its home concert hall, since the venue's opening in 1973. Simone Young is the orchestra's chief conductor and the first female conductor in the post.
Arthur Nikisch was a Hungarian conductor who performed internationally, holding posts in Boston, London, Leipzig and—most importantly—Berlin. He was considered an outstanding interpreter of the music of Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Liszt. Johannes Brahms praised Nikisch's performance of his Fourth Symphony as "quite exemplary, it's impossible to hear it any better."
The Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is a South Australian orchestra based in Adelaide, established in 1936. The orchestra's primary performance venue is the Adelaide Town Hall, but the ASO also performs in other venues. It provides the orchestral support for all productions of the State Opera of South Australia and all Adelaide performances of the Australian Ballet. It also features regularly at the Adelaide Festival, and has performed at the Adelaide Cabaret Festival, WOMAdelaide and several other festivals in Adelaide.
Cheryl Studer is an American dramatic soprano who has sung at many of the world's foremost opera houses. Studer has performed more than eighty roles ranging from the dramatic repertoire to roles more commonly associated with lyric sopranos and coloratura sopranos, and, in her late stage, mezzo-sopranos. She is particularly known for her interpretations of the works of Richard Strauss and Richard Wagner.
Lisa Kinkead Gasteen AO, is an Australian operatic soprano, known for her performances of the works of Wagner. She won the Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 1991. She did not perform between 2008 and 2011, due to neuro-muscular spasms in her neck.
Marina Prior is an Australian soprano and actress with a career mainly in musical theatre. From 1990 to 1993, she starred as the original Christine Daaé in the Australian premiere of The Phantom of the Opera, opposite Anthony Warlow and later Rob Guest.
Richard John Mills is an Australian conductor and composer. He was the artistic director of Victorian Opera from 2013-2023, and formerly artistic director of the West Australian Opera and artistic consultant with Orchestra Victoria. He was commissioned by the Victoria State Opera to write his opera Summer of the Seventeenth Doll (1996) and by Opera Australia to write the opera Batavia (2001).
Cheryl Ruth Barker is an Australian operatic soprano who has had an active international career since the late 1980s. She has sung on several complete opera recordings with Chandos Records, including the title roles in Dvořák's Rusalka, Janáček's Káťa Kabanová and Puccini's Madama Butterfly, and Emilia Marty in Janáček's The Makropulos Case. She has also made two solo recordings of opera arias, one with the London Philharmonic Orchestra under conductor David Parry and the other with Orchestra Victoria and conductor Richard Bonynge. On the stage she has had partnerships with the English National Opera (ENO) and Opera Australia.
Brett Dean is an Australian composer, violist and conductor.
Teddy Tahu Rhodes is a New Zealand-born operatic baritone based in Australia. He has performed at opera houses in New Zealand, Australia, San Francisco, Houston, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington, New York City and throughout Europe. Apart from many appearances in the standard repertoire, he has sung leading roles in Australian and world premieres. His recordings range from Baroque oratorios, operas, Lieder cycles to nursery rhymes and musical theatre. His album The Voice won the Fine Arts Award at the 2004 ARIA Music Awards.
Emma Matthews is an English-born Australian lyric coloratura soprano, noted for operatic roles, but also popular on the concert stage. A Principal Artist with Opera Australia, Matthews has received more Helpmann Awards than any other individual artist, nine Green Room Awards, the Mo Award and the Remy Martin Australian Opera Award.
Bernadette Eileen Cullen is an Australian dramatic mezzo-soprano.
The Helpmann Award for Best Female Actor in a Play is an award presented by Live Performance Australia (LPA), an employers' organisation which serves as the peak body in the live entertainment and performing arts industries in Australia. The accolade is handed out at the annual Helpmann Awards, which celebrates achievements in musical theatre, contemporary music, comedy, opera, classical music, theatre, dance and physical theatre.
Stuart Skelton is an Australian operatic heldentenor. In 2016 he opened the Metropolitan Opera season with Nina Stemme in Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.
The Limelight Awards were an annual celebration of the performances, recordings and music personalities in Australian classical music. Sponsored by the monthly classical arts magazine Limelight, they were the only publicly voted awards of their kind in Australia. In 2012 the awards attracted more than 4,500 votes.
Marcus Bosch is a German conductor. He was Generalmusikdirektor (GMD) in Aachen, held the position at the Staatstheater Nürnberg from 2011, and with the Norddeutsche Philharmonie Rostock from 2020. He is the artistic director of an opera festival in his home town. Conducting internationally, he was appointed professor at the Musikhochschule München in 2016. He was acclaimed for his recording of Bruckner's complete symphonies, among others.
Warwick Olney Fyfe is an Australian operatic heldenbaritone. Winner of the Helpmann Award for Best Male in an Operatic Feature Role for his performance as Alberich in Opera Australia's 2013 Bi-Centenary Cycles of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the State Theatre in Melbourne. In August 2017 he sang Klingsor in a concert performance of Richard Wagner's Parsifal starring Jonas Kaufmann with Opera Australia at the Sydney Opera House.
Deborah Humble is a Welsh born Australian dramatic mezzo-soprano noted for her operatic roles and performances on the world’s concert stages. A principal artist with Opera Australia and the Staatsoper Hamburg, Humble was a recipient of the Dame Joan Sutherland Award in 2004 and a finalist in the International Wagner Competition in 2008. The recipient of two Green Room Award nominations, she has been included in the Who's Who of Australian Women since 2009.
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