| Simone Young |
 Simone Young AM - Conductor Australian-born Simone Young is internationally recognised as one of the leading conductors of her generation. In August 2005 she took up the post of General Manager and Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Music Director of the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg and has already had a number of successes in her first two seasons including outstanding reviews for Simon Boccanegra, Tristan und Isolde and Mathis der Maler as well as a number of orchestral concerts. This is the first time a woman has held European opera posts at this level. She was Music Director of Opera Australia 2001-2003 and Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1999-2002. Her operatic repertoire is extensive and covers a wide cross section of works. She is an acknowledged interpreter of the operas of Wagner and Strauss including Der Ring des Nibelungen, which she has conducted most recently to great acclaim at the Staatsoper in Berlin, and the Vienna Staatsoper. She was the first woman conductor to conduct at the Vienna Staatsoper and at the Bastille, Paris. The Vienna Staatsoper has been a major focus of her work for the last few years, with over twenty five productions, most recently a double bill of Osud and Le Villi, also including Wagner’s Ring Cycle, Lohengrin, Eugene Onegin, Salome, Peter Grimes, Tosca, Wozzeck, Rigoletto and La Juive. Other companies she has worked with include Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich, Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Bastille in Paris, Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Los Angeles Opera and the Houston Grand Opera. As an orchestral conductor she has worked with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, the Maggio Musicale in Florence, the ORF Radio Orchestra in Vienna, NDR Hanover, the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Japan, the Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, the Stuttgart Philharmonic Orchestra, National Orchestre de Lyon and the Staatskapelle Dresden. This year she will make her London orchestral debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra conducting Mahler Symphony No. 2. In Australia the focus of her work during 2000-2003 was Opera Australia, where her opera and concert work with the Australian and Ballet Orchestra, and her development of musical standards in the Company received praise from the profession and the public alike. Productions conducted in Australia include Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Otello, Eugene Onegin, Lulu, Lucia di Lammermoor, Tristan und Isolde, Tannhäuser, Falstaff, Don Carlos, Andrea Chenier, La bohème, Don Giovanni and Le nozze di Figaro (from the fortepiano), Katya Kabanova, Un Ballo in Maschera, Der Rosenkavalier and Cavalleria Rusticana/Pagliacci. She has also conducted operas in the Sydney and Melbourne Festivals, and concerts with the Sydney, Melbourne and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. She has agreed to appear with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra as a guest conductor each year for four years, 2004-2007. She has also worked regularly with the West Australian Symphony Orchestra with which she will conduct two programmes in 2007. In 2006 she also conducted a concert performance of Salome as part of the 2006 Brisbane Festival. This year Simone was elected to the Akademie der Kunste in Hamburg, has been nominated as the Conductor of the Year by Orpenwelt Magazine and has been awarded a Professorship at the Musikhochschule in Hamburg. Other Awards include Green Room Awards for her 1996 performances of Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Melbourne Festival, 2001 performances of Tristan und Isolde and 2003 performances of Lulu, the 2005 Helpman Award for Best Classical Concert with the WA Symphony, the 2002 Helpmann Award for Best Musical Direction (Andrea Chenier) and the Australian Mo Award for “Classical Performer of the Year”. She has received Honorary Doctorates from Monash University in 1998 and the University of New South Wales in 2001, and has been honoured with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres from France. In 2004 she was nominated for a Grammy Award for her recording of La Juive and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in the 2004 Australia Day Honours List. In 2005 she received the prestigious Goethe Institute Medal. 2008 Schedule (Australia) West Australian Symphony Orchestra, Messiaen / Mahler, 25,26 July Press quotes: Elektra, Hamburg: "Simone Young ... convinced at her Hamburg debut as a Strauss interpreter with her strength of guidance ... how sovereignly she handled the orchestra-apparatus of this opera, set accents, and coordinated the vocal and orchestral happenings. Especially remarkable is her precise and alive refined fantasy of the sounds." Die Welt (March 1996) "The Hamburg debut was a sensation. Ms Young had the orchestra in her musical grasp through the whole evening. She created density of dramatic intensity, the diversity of the orchestra was made visible, the singers were led securely." Hamburger Abendblatt (March 1996) "One can only hope that the young conductor Simone Young will be seen more often because she had the precisely playing orchestra under control, and showed the gentlemen conductors which abundance of colours and emotions the Hamburger musicians are able to play." Tageszeitung (March 1996) Aïda and Wagner excerpts - Sydney: "Whether she was forcing the emotional pace or letting the ardour flow more broadly, everything was achieved with a calm deliberation and an utterly clear beat: there was never room for uncertainty in her direction. As she incontestably revealed in Aïda, she is a true accompanist, a truly supporting 'singers' conductor' who breathes the music with them but permits them no unwarranted indulgence. And so it proved thereafter - there was energy aplenty though the big moments were never crass and the myriad richness of the delicately coloured score was revealed with immense subtlety. The orchestra played with a rare unanimity virtually all night ... That pervasive nocturnal mood has stimulated me to think of Aïda as a companion piece to Tristan: indeed, the week's combination of Verdi and Wagner with some outstanding singing and the pivotal attainments of Simone Young has made it one to savour for my entire life. Die Welt (March 1996)La Bohème - Sydney: "The conductor was Simone Young, and no one could forget it. Her domination of stage and pit was total, and she showed acute responsiveness to the score in all its facets. There was nothing routine: the music lived and breathed anew. Exciting." Rigoletto - Vienna: "The second sensation was the woman in the pit: Simone Young is a 'maestra' who knows how to call forth the blood-curdling outbursts of Verdi's partitura as well as she knows how to carefully accompany the most subtle pianissimo." Melba Recordings performances: |