Simon Hewett

Simon Hewett studied clarinet and conducting at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia, and at the Hochschule für Musik »Franz Liszt« Weimar. He was a member of Opera Australia’s Young Artists’ Program and made his debut at the Sydney Opera in 2003. In 2005 he was invited to join the Hamburg State Opera as Resident Conductor and Assistant Music Director, where he conducted over 300 performances of a large repertoire of opera and ballet. From 2011 to 2016 he was First Kapellmeister of the Stuttgart Opera.

Since 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 was appointed Principal conductor in 2008, and has since toured with the Hamburg Ballet to the Salzburg Festival, Australia, the United States of America and Japan. His performance of Neumeier’s production of Mahler’s »Dritte Sinfonie« with the Paris Opera Ballet was broadcast in cinemas worldwide. Recent projects include »Tatjana«, also released on DVD, and the premieres of »Das Lied von der Erde«, »Anna Karenina«, »Beethoven Project« and »Glasmenagerie«.

In addition, he has appeared as a guest conductor with the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet Covent Garden London, the Berlin State Ballet, the Opera Australia Sydney, the West Australian Opera Perth and the Komische Oper Berlin, among others. His opera repertoire includes works by Mozart, Weber, Rossini, Verdi, Wagner, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Puccini and Strauss as well as contemporary composers like Richard Barrett or Liza Lim. As a symphonic conductor Simon Hewett has appeared with the Melbourne Symphony, Sydney Symphony and West Australian Symphony Orchestras. With the Elision Contemporary Music Ensemble he has performed frequently since 1996.

Since his acclaimed debut with »Juwelen der Neuen Welt II« in 2012 he has been a regular guest with the Vienna State Ballet for the productions »Balanchine | Neumeier | Robbins«, »Peer Gynt«, »Coppélia« and »La Fille mal gardée«.