Simon Oswell

Simon Oswell’s training began in Brisbane with John Curro, Jan Sedivka in Hobart, and
subsequently Janos Negyesy and Donald McInnes in the United States. Early successes included awards in the ABC National Concerto Competition playing the Walton and Hindemith concertos. During this period Simon co-founded the Petra String Quartet, actively commissioning and performing Australian works including the world premiere of the late Richard Meale’s 2nd String Quartet at the Adelaide Festival in 1980. Other notable performances include the Australian premiere of Boulez’s ‘Le Marteau sans Maitre’ and performances of Berio’s ‘Sequenza’ for solo viola. During this period, Simon was the Lecturer of Viola and Chamber Music at the University of Tasmania.

Living in the United States for over 20 years, Simon was actively involved in the Hollywood recording scene and recorded the soundtracks to over 800 films including Titanic, Schindler’s List and the Lion King, as well as working with Barbra Streisand, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Alicia Keys, and the Eagles on ‘Hell Freezes Over’. He also continued his interest in solo and chamber music, joining Los Angeles based groups, the Capitol Ensemble and Pacific Serenades.

Simon has held numerous Principal Viola positions including the Carmel Bach Festival (California), the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra (California), the Mozart Classical Orchestra (California) and has appeared as Guest Principal Viola with the Queensland, Tasmanian, Adelaide and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras, the Australian Chamber Orchestra, a
participant in the Australian Festival of Chamber Music and in 2012-15, appearances at the Oxford May Music and North York Moors Chamber Music Festivals in the United Kingdom. 2015 was a particularly busy year with appearances with the Australian World Orchestra in Sydney/Melbourne (Sir Simon Rattle), and India (Zubin Mehta) and teaching at the Melbourne Conservatorium where he is Faculty member.