Simone Young

The Australian conductor Simone Young has been Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra since 2022 and is numbered among the most important conductors of our time. In the summers of 2024 and 2025, she will make her debut at the Bayreuth Festival, conducting the "Ring of the Nibelung."

In the 2024/25 season, she will conduct a new production of Gyögry Kurtág’s "Fin de Partie" at the Vienna State Opera. She will also return to the Opéra de Paris for a revival of "Don Carlos," to the Zurich Opera for "Salome," and to the Staatsoper Unter den Linden for "Elektra." Elsewhere this season, she will conduct concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Filarmonica della Scala, Orquestra Nacional de España, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Lyon, Orchestre National de France, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, and the Frankfurt Museumsorchester.

From August 2005 to the end of the 2014/2015 season, Young served as  General Director of the Hamburg State Opera and General Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic. During these years, she dedicated herself almost exclusively to her role in Hamburg, conducting a wide musical repertoire in premieres and repertoire performances from Mozart to Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Strauss, Hindemith, Britten, and Henze. She achieved great success with world premieres and numerous German premieres at both the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic. Her previous titles include Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra from 1998 to 2002 and  Artistic Director of Opera Australia for 2001 to 2003.

Young made her debut at the Vienna State Opera in 1993 to great acclaim, went on to establish her international reputation as a key interpreter of Wagner and Sturass early in her career. She has led several complete cycles of the "Ring of the Nibelung" at the Vienna State Opera, the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, and in a new production at the Hamburg State Opera, and her engagements have taken her to the leading opera houses worldwide, including the Opéra National de Paris, Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, Metropolitan Opera in New York, Bavarian State Opera, Zurich Opera, Berlin State Opera, and Semperoper Dresden. Most recently, she debuted at the Teatro alla Scala in 2023 with a new production of "Peter Grimes," directed by Robert Carsen.

In addition to her extensive operatic work, Young is a celebrated symphonic conductor, and she regularly appears with the world’s leading orchestras. Just some of her symphonic credits include the Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington DC, Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Munich Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, and various orchestras in Australia.

Young is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, an honorary doctorate from the universities of Sydney and Melbourne, and is a Member of the Order of Australia and Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in France. She has also been awarded the Goethe Medal and the Brahms Prize of Schleswig-Holstein. In April 2022, she was awarded honorary membership of the Vienna State Opera.

Numerous CD and DVD recordings document Simone Young's artistic achievements.

2024/25

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