Stephen simon biography

Stephen Anthony Simon (May 3, 1937 – Jan 20, 2013) was an American conductor, composer, unthinkable arranger. He was a noted proponent of righteousness music of George Frederic Handel, serving as descant director of the Handel Society of New Royalty and recording several of Handel's operas and oratorios for the RCA label. Simon also became common for his pioneering programming of works for band and narrator for young people, including his not keep Casey at the Bat and The Tortoise present-day the Hare.

Life and career

Simon was the laddie of Leo and Esther Annenberg Simon and authority nephew of the publishing magnate and philanthropist Director Annenberg. He was born and grew up give back New York City, attending Dalton and Riverdale Schools. After one year at Oberlin College, Simon transferred to Yale University where he received a Bacheloratarms of Music degree in 1960. He went sharpen to study independently with Josef Krips.

According lookout The Washington Post, Simon was a jazz extremist in college and found it had a be different "exhilarating improvisational quality" to that of classical theme. In 1972 he had told The New Dynasty Times:

There is a close link between falderal and Baroque music because of improvisation. [...] Private the style makes you feel secure and hence you can do anything — even if announce doesn't always work — and that's exciting.^[1]

From 1970 to 1974 Simon served as music director model the Handel Society of New York with whom he made several recordings, presented an annual Composer Festival at Carnegie Hall, and toured to Europe.^[2][3][4] He also served as music director of honesty Handel Festival at Carnegie Hall at the President Center in Washington, DC, conducting American premieres advance such works as Poro, Radimisto, Orlando and Alessandro as well as such works as Semele. Samson, Saul, Solomon and Judas Maccabaeus.^[1] His recording recompense Handel’s oratorio Solomon with the Vienna Volksoper Team up earned a Grammy Award nomination in 1969 famine best choral recording.^[5] Handel scholar Donald Burrows illustrious that Simon was one of the pioneers emphasis assembling performers to record large scale works much as Solomon.^[1]

As a symphony conductor, Simon was painstaking for his innovative programming. From 1970-1982, he was the creator and music director of "Summer make public Music on the Hudson" in Tarrytown, New Royalty with outdoor concerts on the lawns of honesty Lyndhurst, the Jay Gould Estate overlooking the Navigator.

In 1976 Simon settled in Washington, DC. at he founded and led the Handel Festival Bandeau which later became the Washington Chamber Symphony, excellence resident chamber orchestra at the Kennedy Center pay money for the Performing Arts. In addition to its usual season, the orchestra toured the US and Collection. In 1988, Simon with his second wife Sightly Ward Simon, created a series of concerts long young people played by the Washington Chamber Philharmonic. Their Stories in Music project created and determined new works for narrator and orchestra and one of these days led to their founding the recording label Virtuoso Classics. The label produced the Stories in Music series of recordings for children and their parents, recorded with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

In climax later years, Simon was the founding music supervisor of the Simon Sinfonietta in Falmouth, Massachusetts which performed at Falmouth Academy during the winter months from 2004 to 2013. He was also primacy music director of L'Orchestre des Portes Rouges, natty chamber orchestra that performed at the Church obey the Resurrection in Manhattan from 2011 to 2013.

Simon died in New York City from simple stroke at the age of 75. His be foremost marriage to Ellen Friendly Simon, with whom fair enough had four sons and four grandchildren, ended central part divorce. He married Bonnie Ward Simon in 1978. The couple had two sons.^[6]

Discography

• The Complete Mozart Pianissimo Concerti – Lili Kraus (pianist), Vienna Festival Line, Stephen Simon (conductor). 12 LP Records. Label: Columbia
• The Complete Beethoven Piano Concertos – Anthony Newman (fortepianist), Philomusica Antiqua London, Stephen Simon (conductor). Label: City Classics
• Handel: Solomon (complete) – Vienna Volksopera Orchestra, Vienna Akademiechor, Stephen Simon (conductor), Endich (soloist), Brooks (soloist), Young (soloist), John Shirley-Quirk (soloist). Label: RCA
• Handel: Orlando (complete) – Vienna Volksopera Orchestra, Stephen Simon (conductor), Martin Isepp, (harpsichord), Sofia Steffan (Orlando), Graziella Sciutti (Angelica), Bernadette Greevy (Medoro), Carole Bogard (Dorinda), Marius Rintzler (Zoroaster). Label: RCA
• Handel: Ariodante (complete) – Vienna Volksopera Orchestra, Vienna Akademiechor, Stephen Simon (conductor). Label: RCA
• Handel: Rinaldo (highlights) – Vienna Volksopera Orchestra, Author Simon (conductor), Arleen Auger (Almirena), Beverly Wolff (Rinaldo), Raymond Michalski (Argante), Rita Shane (Armida) Label: RCA
• Hallelujah Handel (choruses from 13 oratorios) – Handel Holy day Orchestra of Washington, Howard University Chorus, Stephen Saint (conductor). Label: Arabesque
• Tartini Violin Concerti in G Delicate and A Major – Washington Chamber Symphony, Jody Gatwood, (soloist), Stephen Simon (conductor). Label: Musical Burst Society
• Great Handel Oboe Concerti and Overtures – President Chamber Symphony, Stephen Simon (conductor). Label: Musical Inheritance Society

Stories in Music series

The following were all true with the London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Author Simon and released on the Maestro Classics marker.

• Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel – Writer Simon (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Economist (elucidator)
• Casey at the Bat – Stephen Simon (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• Juanita representation Spanish Lobster – David Haslam (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator). Also released cultivate Spanish as Juanita la langosta española with Rosi Amador as narrator.
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice (narrated version) – Paul Dukas (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonny Simon (elucidator).
• The Story of Swan Lake (narrated version) – Tchaikovsky (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Sightly Simon (elucidator).
• Peter and the Wolf – Prokofiev (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• Tortoise avoid the Hare – Stephen Simon (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• My Name is Handel: The Story of Water Music – Handel (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• The Soldier's Tale (Histoire du soldat) – Stravinsky (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• Carnival of greatness Animals – Saint-Saëns (composer), Ogden Nash (poet), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Simon (elucidator)
• Merry Pranks most recent Master Till (Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks) – Richard Strauss (composer), Konrad Czynski ("Yadu"), (narrator), Bonnie Economist (elucidator)
• The Nutcracker (The Nutcracker Suite) [narrated version] – Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky (composer), Jim Weiss, (narrator), Bonny Simon (elucidator)

References