Simone Young

Simone Margaret Young AM (born 2 March 1961) is an Australian conductor.

She is currently chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.

Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ancestry on her mother's. 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 répétiteur under various conductors, including Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge, Carlo Felice Cillario and Stuart Challender.

Young started her operatic conducting career at the Sydney Opera House in 1985.

In 1986 she was the first woman and youngest person to be appointed a resident conductor with Opera Australia.

She received an Australia Council grant to study overseas, and was named Young Australian of the Year.

In her early years, she was assistant to James Conlon, and Kapellmeister, at the Cologne Opera, and assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival.

They commenced in 1987.

Young was the first female conductor at the Vienna State Opera in 1993.

Young made her first conducting appearance at the Hamburg State Opera in 1996.

Young had first guest-conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in 1996.

She made her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera while she was five months pregnant and conducted at the Vienna State Opera one month prior to giving birth in 1997.

Young is featured in the documentary film Knowing the Score directed by Australian documentarian Janine Hosking, a biopic that "is first and foremost a captivating story of a dazzling 30-year music career."

Young has received honorary doctorates from the universities of New South Wales, Sydney and Melbourne.

She has been appointed a Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres of France.

From 1998 until 2002, Young was principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway.

She conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when they performed Elena Kats-Chernin's "Deep Sea Dreaming" at the 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney.

From 2001 to 2003, Young was chief conductor of Opera Australia in Sydney.

Her contract was not renewed after 2003, with one given reason being the excessive expense of her programming ideas.

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.

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".

In 2021 Young was named the Advance Awards Global Icon.

The ARIA Music Awards is an annual awards ceremony that recognises excellence, innovation, and achievement across all genres of Australian music.

In November 2005, she was the first female conductor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic.

Her discography includes the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner and the complete Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner, where she was the first female conductor to have recorded either of these cycles.

She has also recorded the complete cycle of Brahms' symphonies.

In 2006, she became Professor of Music and Theatre at the University of Hamburg.

Critics of the magazine Opernwelt selected her in October 2006 as the Dirigentin des Jahres (Conductor of the Year).

In August 2008, Young appeared as part of the judging panel in the reality TV talent show-themed program Maestro on BBC Two.

In December 2011, it was announced that Young would conclude her tenures with both the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic after the 2014/2015 season.

In December 2012, she was voted Limelight magazine's Music Personality of the Year.

In 2022, Young was that magazine's critic's choice as Australian Artist of the Year.

In 2013, in commemoration of the bicentenaries for Richard Wagner and for Giuseppe Verdi, Young conducted the entire 'Bayreuth canon' of ten Wagner operas at a festival entitled Wagner-Wahn (Wagner Madness) in Hamburg, along with three rarely performed Verdi operas as a trilogy in September to November – La battaglia di Legnano, I due Foscari, I Lombardi alla prima crociata.

In March 2016, Young was appointed a member of the board of the Europäische Musiktheater-Akademie (European Academy of Music Theatre).

In December 2019, the SSO announced the appointment of Young as its next chief conductor, effective in 2022, with an initial contract of 3 years.

Young is the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the SSO.

In February 2024, the SSO announced the extension of Young's contract as its chief conductor through the end of 2026.

Young is married to Greg Condon, and has two daughters.