Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961 in Sydney) is an Australian conductor. She is music director of the Hamburg Philharmonic and general manager of the Hamburg State Opera. Her discography includes - among other items - a complete cycle of the symphonies of Anton Bruckner, and the complete Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner; in both cases she is the first woman to have recorded these works. She previously held the positions of chief conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Opera Australia. As a guest conductor Young has led many of the world's leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Gulbenkian Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, and Staatskapelle Dresden, and leading opera companies, including the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the Bastille Opera, and the Bavarian State Opera.
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Young was educated at the Monte Sant' Angelo Mercy College, in North Sydney. She studied composition, piano and conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.
Commencing in 1983 Young worked at Opera Australia as a repetiteur, under conductors including Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge, Carlo Felice Cillario and Stuart Challender.[1] Young started her operatic conducting career at the Sydney Opera House in 1985. In her early years, she was assistant to James Conlon at the Cologne Opera, and to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. Since then, she has conducted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in London, the Vienna State Opera, the Opéra Bastille in Paris, at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, and at other important opera houses and with prestigious symphony orchestras worldwide. From 1998 until 2002, Young was principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway.
From 2001 to 2003, Young was chief conductor of Opera Australia in Sydney. Her contract was not renewed after 2003, with one given reason as the excessive expense of her programming ideas.[2]
Young made her first conducting appearance at the Hamburg State Opera in 1996. In May 2003, she was named both chief executive of the Hamburg State Opera and chief conductor of the Philharmoniker Hamburg, posts which she assumed in 2005.[3] In 2006, she became Professor of Music and Theatre in Hamburg University. Critics of the magazine Opera World selected her in October 2006 as the Dirigentin des Jahres (Conductor of the Year).
Young was the first female conductor at the Vienna State Opera in 1993.[3] She conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when they performed "Advance Australia Fair" at the 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney. In November 2005, she was the first female conductor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic.[4]
In August 2008 Young appeared in the reality TV talent show-themed television program, Maestro on BBC Two, when she was part of the judging panel.[5]
Young is married and has two daughters. Her father is Irish and her mother Croatian.[6] Young has received honorary doctorates from the universities of Sydney and Melbourne. She has been appointed a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France.[7] On 26 January 2004, in the Australia Day Honours, Young was named a Member of the Order of Australia (AM):
"for service to the arts as a conductor with major opera companies and orchestras in Australia and internationally"
| Cultural offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by Dmitri Kitajenko |
Principal Conductor, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra 1998–2002 |
Succeeded by Andrew Litton |
| Preceded by Richard Bonynge |
Music Director, Opera Australia 2001–2003 |
Succeeded by Richard Hickox |
| Preceded by Ingo Metzmacher |
Music Director, Hamburg State Opera 2005– |
Succeeded by incumbent |