1. Simon read music at King’s College Cambridge and studied piano accompaniment with Michael Dussek at the Royal Academy of Music.  As a student, he won every major award for piano accompaniment including the Gerald Moore Award as well as the accompanist prizes in the Kathleen Ferrier and Royal Overseas League competitions. Since then, Simon has become an Associate of the Royal Academy and has been recently appointed professor of piano accompaniment at the Royal College of Music, London. He is the official accompanist for the Cardiff BBC Singer of the World Song Prize.
   

 

Current and future plans include a recording of Richard Strauss lieder with Gillian Keith and Simon’s own song series, Spring Voices at the National Portrait Gallery, London. His recital schedule includes Schumann Dichterliebe with Mark Padmore throughout the UK; Schubert Schwanengesang with Christopher Purves at the Howard Assembly Room at Opera North, as well as recitals with singers Malin Christensson (Paris and Montreal) Felicity Palmer, Anna Stephany, Robin Tritschler, Elizabeth Watts and Chausson Chanson Perpetuelle with Angelika Kirchschlager and the Belcea Quartet on a European tour including the Wigmore Hall, London. Simon will also give recitals with Angelika Kirschlager in July 2010 at the Verbier Festival, Switzerland and at the Howard Assembly Room, Leeds and in December 2010 with Stephan Genz and Lucy Crow at the 30th anniversary of the International Music Festival ‘December Nights’ in Moscow, the programme to include lieder by Mendelssohn, Schubert and Schumann.

Simon has established himself as one of the UK’s leading piano accompanists, performing at venues and festivals internationally. He has performed with many of Britain’s leading singers including Karen Cargill, Sally Matthews, Mark Padmore, Kate Royal, Andrew Kennedy, Felicity Palmer and Roderick Williams. He has also given song recitals with Cora Burggraaf, Nicole Cabell, Gillian Keith, Angelika Kirchschlager, Stephan Loges and Ailish Tynan.

Recording highlights include Debussy Songs with Gillian Keith on Deux-Elles, Warlock Songs with Andrew Kennedy on Landor Records and Feldman, Zimmerman, Xenakis and Schoenberg with violinist Carolin Widmann on ECM.

Last season’s highlights included performances of the Schubert song cycles with Mark Padmore; a theatre project on the madness of Ophelia with Cora Burggraaf in Rotterdam; a recital with Angelika Kirchschlager at the Verbier Festival; a performance of Harawi with Gweneth-Ann Jeffers as part of the South Bank Messiaen Festival and at the BBC Proms; recitals with Sally Matthews at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and Jonathan Lemalu and Allan Clayton at the City of London Festival.  Simon also made his North American debut with Cora Burggraaf.

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3. This biography is for website use only. For a full and updated biography please email: simon@simonlepper.com