Simon Crawford-Phillips

Simon Crawford-Phillips has developed an unusually diverse career as soloist, chamber musician and song accompanist and the guidance of John Lavender, Hamish Milne and Ferenc Rados. This all-encompassing passion and fascination for music has recently turned Simon’s focus towards conducting.

Recent concerto performances have included Beethoven, Chopin, Martinu, Mozart, Shostakovich, Schumann and Stravinsky with orchestras such as the Hallé Orchestra, VIVA, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and the Academy of St.Martin in the Fields. December 2007 saw his concerto debut in Japan with the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Alan Gilbert.

Simon frequently works with singers such as Emma Bell, Measha Brueggergosman, Elizabeth Watts, James Gilchrist, Andrew Kennedy and Robert Murray, and instrumentalists Emily Beynon, Colin Currie, Martin Frost, Richard Hosford, Pekka Kuusisto, Lawrence Power, Christian Poltera, and Roger Tapping. He also appears regularly as a guest with the Nash Ensemble, ECO chamber ensemble and Philharmonia soloists.

Simon is a founding member of the Kungsbacka Piano Trio, which was selected in 2000 for the BBC New Generation Artists Scheme. In 2003, the trio made its Carnegie Hall debut and appeared at major European Concert Halls, including the Concertgebouw, Vienna Konzerthaus and Cologne Philharmonie. Concerts in 2005 included debuts at the Berlin Philharmonie, Schwetzinger Festspiele and Muziekcentrum Vredensburg in Utrecht and a tour of Argentina and Uruguay and 2007 saw its debut tour of Australia and New Zealand. The trio has recorded for the NAXOS and BIS labels. The complete Mozart trios were released in 2008 followed by a series of three Haydn discs.

In 2001 Simon made his BBC Proms debut with his piano duo partner Philip Moore and in 2004 the Duo received a Borletti-Buitoni Fellowship and were appointed Steinway Artists. Highlights in 2005 included debut concerts at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and Edinburgh Festival, along with return visits to the South Bank, Bridgewater Hall and Wigmore Hall. They premiered a double concerto by Detlev Glanert in 2008 with the BBCSSO.

A performer at many of the festivals (Bath, City of London, Cheltenham, Dubrovnik, Edinburgh, Mecklenburg, Montpelier, Lofoten, Obertsdorf, Oslo, Savannah, Schwetzinger, Spoleto, Schleswig-Holstein and Verbier), Simon has also been invited to the Open Chamber Music Sessions at Prussia Cove in Cornwall.

In 2009 Simon performed in the UK, Italy, Washington DC and in August he returned for several appearances at BBC Proms and 2010/11 included concerts in China with Alison Balsom and collaborations with the Cremona, Barbirolli, Danté, Elias and Sacconi String Quartets and a recital in New York.

This season Simon plays Beethoven’s triple concerto with Andrew Manze in Helsingborg, Sweden,tours Europe with Jakob Koranyi for the ECHO Rising Stars series and returns to the Wigmore Hall and Concertgebouw.

In addition to radio and television broadcasts in Europe, Australia and Japan he has also recorded for the BIS, Deux-Elles, Hyperion, Harmonia Mundi, Naxos and Signum CD labels. Further recordings are planned for Hyperion and Naxos.

In June 2010, Simon was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. He holds teaching positions at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the Royal Academy of Music and the Gothenburg Academy of Music and Drama.

Simon is co-director of the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival held every January.