Simon’s involvement with Forest started in 1988 when he was persuaded to join to perform in Brigadoon. Over the next few years he served on the committee as well as performing in or stage crewing on Fiddler on the Roof (as Fyedka), Annie Get Your Gun (Chorus), Hello Dolly (as Barnaby Tucker), The Music Man (as Ewart Dunlop), Kismet (as Caliph), Half a Sixpence (Stage Crew and ‘Camp’ Photographer), Gigi (Stage Crew) and made his final appearance in 1993 as Ko-Ko in The Mikado. In total between 1988 and 1997 he performed in over 50 amateur productions of straight plays, musicals and opera, primarily at the KMT, as well as stage managing and being music director for many others.
In 1997 he became a full time professional singer performing with many of the leading opera companies throughout the UK including Glyndebourne, English Touring Opera, D’Oyly Carte and The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. From 2001 until 2012 he was a member of Welsh National Opera, with whom he performed and understudied a large number of roles, including the title role in Jephtha and Kromow in The Merry Widow alongside Lesley Garrett, which was broadcast on the BBC.
His concert work is extensive, having appeared at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, St Johns Smith Square, Symphony Hall Birmingham, The Bridgewater Hall Manchester, The Royal Centre Nottingham and many other venues in the UK and Europe.
Simon has been a conductor, vocal coach and arranger for Sing Live UK, course tutor for the National Youth Choir of Wales and worked with the WNO Community Choir on an operatic FlashMob. He is a member of the corporate entertainment group TLM Productions as well as Director of the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama’s Community Choirs and musical director of City Voices Cardiff and City Voices Bristol.
Simon ‘retired’ from the full time profession in 2012 and currently works for the performers union Equity as its National Organiser for Wales and Regional Organiser for the South West. He does, however, continue to perform in concerts as well as conducting his many choirs.