SIMON O'NEILL
Tenor
Simon was the first recipient of the Circle 100 Scholarship. He is now regarded as one of the finest helden-tenors on the international stage. He has frequently performed with the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Berlin, Vienna and Bayerische Staatsopern, Paris Opera, Teatro alla Scala and the Bayreuth, Salzburg, Edinburgh and BBC Proms Festivals, appearing with a number of illustrious conductors including Daniel Barenboim, Sir Simon Rattle, James Levine, Riccardo Muti, Valery Gergiev, Sir Antonio Pappano, Pierre Boulez, Sir Mark Elder, Sir Colin Davis, Edo de Waart, Fabio Luisi, Donald Runnicles, Sir Simon Rattle, Christian Thielemann, Jaap van Zweden, Daniel Harding, Simone Young, Andris Nelsons, Pietari Inkinen, Esa Pekka Salonen and Gustavo Dudamel.
Notable engagements have included Siegmund in Die Walküre at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Pappano, Teatro alla Scala and Staatsoper Berlin with Barenboim, at the Metropolitan Opera with Runnicles (Otto Shenk) then Luisi (Robert Lepage), Bayerische Staatsoper with Petrenko, Vienna Staatsoper with Welser-Möst and at Deutsche Oper Berlin with Rattle; at the Royal Opera House he has performed the title roles in Lohengrin, Parsifal, Florestan in Fidelio, and Stolzing in Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg; Lohengrin and Parsifalat the Bayreuth Festival with Nelsons and Gatti; Parsifal with Thielemann at the Wiener Staatsoper, Bayersiche Staatsoper with Trinks and Opera National de Paris with Young; the Tambourmajor in Wozzeck with Levine at the Metropolitan Opera and Hamburg Staatsoper with Nagano; Verdi’s Otelloand Der Freischütz with the London Symphony Orchestra and Colin Davis; Das Lied von der Erde at Carnegie Hall with Levine and the Met Orchestra and with Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony; Siegfried with the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder at the Edinburgh Festival, Der Kaiser in Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Staatsoper Berlin with Young, Die Walkürewith Jaap van Zweden and the New York Philharmonic and with Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic and the BBC Proms with Barenboim. Most recently he performed Loge in Das Rheingold with Dudamel and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Tannhäuser with Kober in Tokyo – he has now performed all of the major Wagner heldentenors in the repertoire.
His recording, as tenor soloist in Mahler's Symphony No.8 with Gustavo Dudamel the Los Angeles Philharmonic for Deutsche Grammophon won the Grammy Award. Simon has recorded the title role of Siegfried with three orchestras: Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchestrer des Bayerishen Rundfunks (2023), the Hallé Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder (2020) and with Jaap van Zweden for the Hong Kong Philharmonic Ring Cycle recording for Naxos (2018). His recent LSO Live recording of Boris in Janacek’s Katya Kabanova with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle has received rave reviews.
He is an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit, a Fulbright Scholar, alumnus of The Juilliard School, Manhattan School of Music and University of Otago, he holds a Doctor of Music from Victoria University (Honoris Causa), NZ Arts Foundation Laureate, and is a recording artist with EMI, Decca, Naxos and Deutsche Gramophon. Simon takes great joy in teaching voice, coaching operatic repertoire, judging voice competitions and mentoring singers and musicians when his international performance schedule allows.
