Simon Hewett

The Australian conductor Simon Hewett is one of the world’s leading ballet conductors, and works regularly as a guest conductor with the most prestigious ballet companies. From 2008 to 2023 he was principal conductor of the Hamburg Ballet and from 2010 to 2018 he was First Kapellmeister at the Stuttgart Opera.  

He began his career as assistant to the general music director of Opera Australia in Sydney and made his debut as a conductor in 2003 with Bizet’s Les Pêcheurs de perles at the Sydney Opera House. His conducting engagements in Australia included the revival of Harry Kupfer’s much praised production of Otello, and new productions of Aida, Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Salome in Sydney, Macbeth at Opera Australia and Falstaff in Perth.

In 2005 Simone Young appointed him as Kapellmeister and assistant to the general music director at the Hamburg State Opera. He has conducted more than 200 opera and ballet performances there.

Since he conducted John Neumeier’s Parzival at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden in 2006, he has developed a close relationship with the Hamburg Ballet. His conducting credits have included John Neumeier’s ballets on Mahler’s Seventh and Tenth Symphonies and Tatiana with an original score by Lera Auerbach in Hamburg, and Third Symphony of Gustav Mahler at the Paris Opéra.

In 2008 he made his debut at the Komische Oper Berlin with Il barbiere di Siviglia; he has since returned to work regularly with the company.

He made his debut at the Stuttgart Opera in 2011 with Der fliegende Holländer. Following his appointment as First Kapellmeister, his appearances included Die Fledermaus, Tosca, Eugene Onegin, Nabucco and a new production of La bohème.

Since 1996 he has maintained a close collaboration with the ELISION Ensemble, Australia’s leading contemporary music ensemble. Together they regularly tour worldwide. Their world premieres have included Liza Lim’s Moon Spirit Feasting and Richard Barrett’s Opening of the Mouth, the recording of which was named ‘Recording of the Month’ by BBC Music Magazine.

Simon Hewett studied conducting, piano and clarinet at the University of Queensland. At the age of 19 he became the youngest finalist at the renowned Australian ABC Young Performers Awards. In 1998 he received a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) which enabled him to continue his studies at the University of Music Franz Liszt in Weimar.