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Carlos Simón

African American composer Carlos Simon's music reflects social justice concerns and has been widely performed by top orchestras around the U.S. In 2021, he became the composer-in-residence at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. Simon was born in Washington, D.C., in 1986 but grew up in Atlanta. His father was a Pentecostal preacher, and he was not allowed to listen to any music other than gospel. Simon has pointed to the influence of gospel on his concert works, which balance notated and improvisatory elements. He took up the piano at age ten, playing at his father's church, and then began piano lessons. Simon attended Morehouse College and Georgia State University in Atlanta. He went on for a doctorate at the University of Michigan, studying with Michael Daugherty and Evan Chambers. After graduating, he worked as a keyboard player and musical director for R&B singers Angie Stone and Jennifer Holliday. In 2018, Simon was named a Sundance/Time Warner Composer Fellow. Simon's 2017 work Amen! for wind ensemble was recorded by the North Texas Wind Symphony in 2019. Simon has fulfilled commissions from the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, and the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, as well as the Los Angeles Opera and Washington National Opera. He gained wide attention for the Requiem for the Enslaved, which combined African American spirituals, the Latin requiem mass (in English, or simply as inspiration for instrumental music), and spoken words. Simon received the Sphinx Medal of Excellence in 2021, becoming only the second composer so honored, and the following year, he landed on a Washington Post list of Composers and Performers to Watch in 2022. Signed to the Decca label, Simon released an album featuring Requiem for the Enslaved that year, with the Hub New Music ensemble and rapper and spoken word artist Marco Pavé. He is an assistant professor at Georgetown University, the story of whose sale of slaves was told in Requiem for the Enslaved. Simon planned a new work for the Minnesota Orchestra in 2023, a tribute to George Floyd.
© James Manheim /TiVo
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Discography

14 album(s) • Sorted by Bestseller

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