Conductor
Simon Hewett
Simon Hewett is the Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Opera, and Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Ballet. In addition to his commitments with these two companies, he has performed regularly in recent seasons with Opera Australia in Sydney and Melbourne, the Komische Oper in Berlin, and the Paris Opera Ballet. His performances are frequently praised for their stylistic fluency, emotional intensity and technical precision.
Simon Hewett studied clarinet and conducting at the University of Queensland, graduating with First Class Honours and a University Medal. At 19 he was the youngest ever finalist in the ABC Young Conductor of the Year Award, and conducted the West Australian Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Hindemith's "Symphonische Metamorphosen". In 1998 he was awarded a German Government Scholarship and studied operatic and symphonic conducting for 3 years at the Franz Liszt Hochschule für Musik in Weimar, Germany.
From 2002-03 Simon Hewett was a member of Opera Australia's Young Artists' Programme, and made his debut at the Sydney Opera house in October 2003, conducting Bizet's "Les Pêcheurs du perles". He was immediately reengaged for performances of "Il Barbiere di Siviglia" in 2004. He has since returned regularly to Opera Australia as a guest conductor, for "Tosca" (2005), "Turandot" (2006), and to lead the revival of Harry Kupfer's critically acclaimed production of "Otello" (2008). He returned to Sydney in 2009 for "Aida" and a new production of "Così fan tutte" with director Jim Sharman. In 2011 he conducted "Macbeth" for Opera Australia and "Falstaff" for the West Australian Opera. In 2012 he led critically acclaimed new productions of "Le Nozze di Figaro" and "Salome" for Opera Australia.
In 2005 Simone Young invited Simon Hewett to join the Hamburg State Opera as Resident Conductor and Assistant Music Director. Since his debut with "La Traviata" in 2005, he has conducted over 200 performances in Hamburg of a large repertoire of opera and ballet. In 2008 he debuted at the Komische Oper with "Il Barbiere di Siviglia", returning in 2010 for "Die Entführung aus dem Serail".
Following successful performances of "Der Fliegende Holländer" for the Stuttgart Opera in 2010, Simon Hewett was invited to become Principal Conductor. In 2012/13 he led revivals of "Die Fledermaus" and "Tosca". He has since conducted new productions of "La Bohème" and "Khovanshchina", and a wide range of other repertoire in Stuttgart including "Die Fledermaus", "Nabucco", "Tosca", "Madama Butterfly", "Eugene Onegin" and "Der Freischütz".
As a symphonic conductor Simon Hewett has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. His interest in contemporary music is documented through his long relationship with the Elision Contemporary Music Ensemble, with whom he has performed frequently since 1996, touring with them to Korea in 1997 and Europe in 1998. He has performed with Elision at all of Australia's major festivals, conducting the world premieres of Richard Barrett's "Opening of the Mouth", and Liza Lim's opera "Moon Spirit Feasting". His CD of Richard Barrett's "Opening of the Mouth" with the Elision Ensemble was reviewed by the BBC Music Magazine upon its release as "Pick of the Month".
Since conducting the premiere of John Neumeier's "Parzival" at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in 2006, Simon Hewett has enjoyed a close and productive collaboration with the Hamburg Ballet. He has toured with the Hamburg Ballet to the Salzburg Festival, Australia, the United States of America and Japan. His performances of John Neumeier's production of Mahler's 3rd Symphony at the Paris Opera were broadcast in cinemas worldwide and recorded for DVD release. He led the world premiere of John Neumeier's ballet "Tatiana" (2014), also recorded for DVD release, and the premiere of a new ballet based on the life of the celebrated Italian actress Eleonora Duse (2015). In December 2016 he will lead the German Premiere of "The Song of the Earth", a ballet by John Neumeier to music by Gustav Mahler.
Performances
