Simon Tedeschi is one of Australia’s most renowned classical pianists, winner of the Young Performer of the Year Award (Australia), the Creativity Foundation’s Legacy Award (USA), and the New York Young Jewish Pianist Award. Recipient of a Centenary of Federation Medal, he has performed for audiences, royalty and world leaders worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall and Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts.
Acclaimed by respected critics and peers as “True greatness” (Sydney Morning Herald), Tedeschi performed his first Mozart piano concerto in the Sydney Opera House at age nine, later living in the USA and performing with the Colorado, Fort Worth and Illinois Symphony Orchestras. Since returning in 2009, Tedeschi performs as soloist with all major Australasian symphony orchestras, most recently with the Sydney and Adelaide Symphony Orchestras; a frequent guest of festivals, he has also toured extensively overseas with Sydney Opera House’ family show, ‘Meeting Mozart’ (produced by CDP) including to the UAE and China.
Recent engagements have included as soloist with the Queensland Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra; Sydney Festival, Art Gallery of NSW, performances of Echoes of the Jazz Age – Tedeschi’s third creative collaboration with Australian theatre icon John Bell AO OBE. 2020/21 also saw concerts with violinist Andrew Haveron, flautist Sally Walker, for the Salon Series at The Langham (Sydney), for Live At Yours, Musica Viva Australia, ABC Classic, Melbourne Digital Concert Hall, and in The Australian’s Iso series. 2022 engagements include as soloist with Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, touring two new shows with John Bell – ‘Words and Music’ and ‘With love, Amadeus’ – in Sydney and Blue Mountains, Hobart, Bendigo and Warrnambool (VIC) and at UKARIA in Adelaide; performing at Riverside Theatres (with the Orava Quartet), Joan Sutherland Performing Arts Centre, Monash Academy of Performing Arts, regional orchestral performances of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and the Grieg piano concerto, and more.
Simon is also fast gaining renown as a writer of note, appearing at several writers’ festivals around the country this year, with his critically acclaimed literary debut, Fugitive (for Upswell Publishing) released in May; he is also recipient of the prestigious Calibre Essay Prize for 2022.
Simon Tedeschi has recorded numerous acclaimed albums for ABC Classics/Universal Music, including The Gershwin Collection, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, R. Strauss’ Enoch Arden, Schumann, Schubert and concerti by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Grieg. Upcoming releases include with jazz violinist/vocalist George Washingmachine, and French repertoire with violist Roger Benedict (due for 2022 release by ABC Classics). An ambassador for Support Act’s AusMusic T-Shirt Day 2020, Fine Music FM, and Sydney Eisteddfod, Tedeschi has also supported fundraising for disadvantaged children in Western Sydney, through Symphony for Life Foundation.
Simon is married to acclaimed artist and three-time Archibald Prize finalist, Loribelle Spirovski.
www.simontedeschi.com
Latest News
Simon Tedeschi and John Bell AO OBE have created and penned two new shows together, which will be touring in 2022 and 2023. ‘Words & Music’ and ‘With Love, Amadeus’ each blend poetry with piano, telling stories and revealing moments from personal touring experiences, and from Mozart’s letters. Read more here.
Tedeschi tours with John Bell AO OBE in ‘Bright Star’ – reviews
Reviews of Simon’s March performances of Rachmaninoff’s 4th piano concerto with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra at Sydney Opera House: “a deceptively effortless performance… Tedeschi’s relaxed dexterity lent an easy logic to music that can seem excessively complicated… Tedeschi generated the requisite fireworks” (Limelight Magazine); “Tedeschi’s legato is astonishing … giving Rachmaninov’s music a diamond-cut clarity” (Harriet Cunningham); “a revelation… simply superb” (J-Wire).
Reviews of Simon’s performance with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra for their 2017 Season Opening at Adelaide Town Hall: “just the right degree of easygoing humour and fierce determination to make Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue sizzle… lashings of romantic warmth and light-fingered brilliance” (The Advertiser); “an exciting conversation between soloist and orchestra… [Simon] is an Australian treasure.” (The Barefoot Review)
