Education

Simon began lessons with David Saperton

David Saperton

David Saperton was an American pianist known especially for being the first pianist to play the entire original compositions as well as the complete transcriptions of his father-in-law, Leopold Godowsky. He also recorded a number of Godowsky’s Studies on Chopin's Études as well as other pieces...

 at the age of five. At the age of eight, Simon was accepted by Józef Hofmann

Józef Hofmann

Josef Casimir Hofmann was a Polish-American virtuoso pianist, composer, music teacher, and inventor.-Biography:...

 as a scholarship student at the Curtis Institute of Music

Curtis Institute of Music

The Curtis Institute of Music is a conservatory in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, that offers courses of study leading to a performance Diploma, Bachelor of Music, Master of Music in Opera, and Professional Studies Certificate in Opera. According to statistics compiled by U.S...

 in Philadelphia

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

 where he trained with fellow classmates Jorge Bolet

Jorge Bolet

Jorge Bolet was a Cuban-born but mostly American-resident pianist and teacher.-Life:Bolet was born in Havana, and studied at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where he himself taught from 1939 to 1942...

 and Sidney Foster. Simon also took lessons from Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky

Leopold Godowsky was a famed Polish American pianist, composer, and teacher. One of the most highly regarded performers of his time, he became known for his theories concerning the application of relaxed weight and economy of motion in piano playing, principles later propagated by Godowsky's...

 and Harold Bauer

Harold Bauer

Harold Bauer was a noted pianist who began his musical career as a violinist.Harold Bauer was born in London; his father was a German violinist and his mother was English. He took up the study of the violin under the direction of his father and Adolf Pollitzer. He made his debut as a violinist in...

. Shortly after graduation, he debuted at the Town Hall

The Town Hall

The Town Hall is a performance space, located at 123 West 43rd Street, between Sixth Avenue and Broadway, in New York City. It seats approximately 1,500 people.-History:...

 and Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 in New York City. He was the winner of the Naumburg International Piano Competition

Naumburg International Piano Competition

The Naumburg International Piano Competition is a music competition for young pianists, of ages 17 to 32, organized in New York City, USA since 1926. It is sponsored by the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation...

 in 1940.

Professional career

Simon has been hailed as a supervirtuoso and is recognized as one of the grand masters of the piano. Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer wrote, "Simon's recital offered more than a glimpse into the fabled golden age of piano playing... His virtuosity is marked not only by speed, power, lightness and accuracy but also by intricate interplay of voices and lambent colors." His recordings include the complete piano works of Rachmaninoff, Ravel, Chopin, and most of the works of Brahms and Schumann on the Vox Records

Vox Records

VOX Records is a budget classical record label. The name is Latin for "voice."-History:Vox was founded in 1945, starting out with 78-rpm discs, specializing in licensed pressings of classical recordings made in Europe. It was one of the last major recording companies to adopt stereo recording,...

 label. He has toured in Europe, the Middle East, and the Pacific. He has appeared with the New York Philharmonic

New York Philharmonic

The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...

, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra

The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is a symphony orchestra of the Netherlands, based at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. In 1988, Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands conferred the "Royal" title upon the orchestra...

, and London Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra

The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...

.

Simon has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music

Royal Academy of Music

The Royal Academy of Music in London, England, is a conservatoire, Britain's oldest degree-granting music school and a constituent college of the University of London since 1999. The Academy was founded by Lord Burghersh in 1822 with the help and ideas of the French harpist and composer Nicolas...

 in London, Royal Conservatory of The Hague

Royal Conservatory of The Hague

The Royal Conservatory of The Hague is a conservatorium of music, providing higher education in music and dance, it is located in The Hague, Netherlands.-The Conservatory:...

, and the Geneva Conservatory. He has served on the faculties of Indiana University

Indiana University

Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...

, Manhattan School of Music

Manhattan School of Music

The Manhattan School of Music is a major music conservatory located on the Upper West Side of New York City. The school offers degrees on the bachelors, masters, and doctoral levels in the areas of classical and jazz performance and composition...

, and the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. His students include pianists Frederic Chiu

Frederic Chiu

Frederic Chiu is a Chinese American classical concert pianist.-Education:Chiu was born in Ithaca, New York. He studied music and computer science at Indiana University, then pursued his musical studies in New York at the Juilliard School, where he studied with Abbey Simon...

, Karen Shaw, John Kamitsuka, Erika Nickrenz

Erika Nickrenz

Erika Nickrenz is an American classical pianist best known as the pianist for the Eroica Trio.Both her parents are professional musicians, her mother a Grammy Award-winning pianist and her father a violist...

, Richard Dowling, Roger Wright

Roger Wright

Roger Robinson Wright III is an American classical concert pianist. He is also a Scrabble player who won the United States National Scrabble Championship in 2004.-Early life and musical training:...

, Andrew Cooperstock, David Korevaar, and Martha Argerich

Martha Argerich

Martha Argerich is an Argentine pianist.-Early life:Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three...

.

Simon is a long standing jury member of the Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

Van Cliburn International Piano Competition

The Van Cliburn International Piano Competition was first held in 1962 in Fort Worth, Texas and is hosted by Van Cliburn Foundation. It was created by Fort Worth area teachers in honor of Van Cliburn, who had won the first International Tchaikovsky Competition four years prior with Tchaikovsky's...

, the Geneva International Piano Competition, the Leeds International Piano Competition, the Sydney International Piano Competition

Sydney International Piano Competition

The Sydney International Piano Competition of Australia is a music competition, presented by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation in association with the University of Sydney and broadcast live throughout Australia. It is held every four years, over a three-week period in July-August, and is...

, and the South Africa International Piano Competition.

Simon currently lives in Geneva, Switzerland, and Houston, Texas where he is currently Distinguished Cullen Professor of Piano at the Moores School of Music

Moores School of Music

The Rebecca and John J. Moores School of Music is the music school of the University of Houston. The Moores School offers the Bachelor of Music, Bachelor of Arts in Music, Master of Music, and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees in music performance, conducting, theory and composition, music history...

.

Abbey Simon is a Yamaha Artist

Yamaha Artist

The term Yamaha Artist refers to musical instrumentalists who choose, officially, to play any of a large group of Yamaha musical instruments....

.

Awards and honors

• Walter Naumburg Prize, (1940)
• National Orchestral Award
• Federation of Music Prize
• Harriet Cohen Medal
• Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal
• Ford Foundation Award
• Distinguished Teacher Award at the Moores School of Music

Discography

• Schumann:
  • Variation ABEGG, Kreisleriana, Arabesque, Kindersenen (DANTE PSG 6949)
  • Carnaval, Op. 9 & Fantasy in C, Op. 17 (VOX ACD 8192)

• Liszt:
  • Six Grandes Etudes de Paganini (VOX VU 9004)
  • Etude in D-flat major (Un Sospiro) (HMV)

• Brahms:
  • Concerto No. 1 in D-minor (Prize Winning Recording of a live performance, Buenos-Aires, dir. Juan-Jose Castro)
  • Variations on a theme by Paganini, Op. 35 (VOX VU 9004)
  • Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel, Op. 24 & Variations on a theme by Paganini (PHILLIPS A 00195 L)
  • Three pieces for piano solo (HMV)
  • F minor Sonata, Op. 5 (HMV)
  • Intermezzi, Capricios, Fantasies and Rhapsodies (PHILLIPS)

• Ravel:
  • Piano Concerto in G (VOX CDX 5031)
  • Piano Concerto in D for the Left Hand (VOX CDX 5032) (Orchestre de Radio-Luxembourg, Dir. Louis de Froment)
  • Complete Works for Piano Solo (VOX CDX 5012)

• Chopin:
  • The Four Scherzi (VOX VU 9030)
  • The Four Ballades, Impromptus, and Berceuse (VOX VU 9031)
  • The Sonatas and Barcarolle (VOX VU 9032)
  • Etudes, Op.10 & 25 (VOX VU 9033)
  • The Complete Waltzes, Fantasie & Variations Brillantes (VOX VU 9034)
  • Nocturnes (complete) (VOX CDX 5146)
  • Preludes (VOX)
  • The Piano Concertos (HMV, EMI D 13175Z) (Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, dir. Sir Eugene Goosens)
  • The Complete Orchestral Works (VOX 5002) (Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, dir. Heribert Beissel)

• Grieg:
  • Piano Concerto in A minor, Op. 16 (Phillips)

• Mendelssohn:
  • 17 Variations Sérieuses (VOX TVS 34460)

• Rachmaninoff:
  • The Complete Piano Works(VOX CDX 5008)
  • Rachmaninoff Concerto No 3 in D minor, Op. 30 (To be released) (Japan Philharm. Orchestra, dir. Akeo Watanabe)
  • Saint-Saens : Carnaval des Animaux (EMI Classics DCL 707202) (With Hepzibah Menuhin and the Philharmonia Orchestra, dir. Efrem Kurz)

• Dohnanyi:
  • Variations on a Nursery Song (UNESCO classics DCL707202)

• Albeniz-Godowsky:
  • Triana from "Iberia" (DANACORD DACOCD 379)

• César Franck:
  • Prélude, Chorale and Fugue (HMV)

• Beethoven:
  • Quintet for piano and winds (VOX-Turnabout TVC 37004)

• Transcriptions:
  • Transcriptions by Liszt, Rachmaninoff, Godowsky, Chasins (VOX 8204)

External links

• Official Website
• Moores School of Music Faculty Profile: Abbey Simon
• Yamaha Artists: Abbey Simon
• The Juilliard School: Abbey Simon
• Article on Simon's involvement with the Moores School of Music