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About
Simon Hewett is Principal Conductor of the Hamburg Ballet. In addition to his commitments in Hamburg, he was Principal Conductor of the Stuttgart Opera from 2011-2016, and he has appeared as a guest conductor in recent seasons with the Paris Opera Ballet, the Royal Ballet Covent Garden, the Vienna State Opera Ballet and the Berlin State Ballet.
Simon Hewett studied clarinet and conducting at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia graduating with First Class Honours and a University Medal. After receiving a German Government Scholarship he continued his conducting studies at the Hochschule für Musik ‘Franz Liszt’ Weimar, from 1998-2001. 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 de 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 Cosi 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 die Figaro and Salome for Opera Australia. His performances of Salome were acknowledged with a Green Room Award for best operatic performance 2012.
In 2005 Simon Hewett was invited 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 300 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. He has since conducted a broad repertoire including productions La Bohème, Khovanshchina, 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 Baden Baden Festspielhaus 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 performances of Neumeier’s production of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony with the Paris Opera Ballet were broadcast in cinemas worldwide. Recent projects include Tatjana, recently released on DVD, the Hamburg premiere of Neumeier’s Das Lied von der Erde, and the forthcoming premiere of Anna Karenina.