PHILIP SIMMONS
Artistic Director
American Music Festivals, IL
Music Director
Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra
Resident Conductor
Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands
Philip Simmons has conducted in twenty countries, performing at Carnegie Hall, Chicago Symphony Center, the Musikverein, and the Great Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory. He is able to captivate and engage any audience, on and off the podium. As Artistic Director of American Music Festivals he serves as Music Director of the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra and Resident Conductor of the Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands.
On July 4, 2004 Mr. Simmons conducted the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra. His debut in the Philharmonic Hall was in 1998. The next summer he conducted the Russian State Symphony in a concert broadcast nationally as part of the American Music Festival in Russia. Mr. Simmons has guest conducted extensively in the former Soviet Union and was Associate Conductor of the Orchestra of the Hermitage Theater and Principal Guest Conductor of the Sochi Symphony Orchestra. He will conduct the opening of “West Side Story” with the State Musical Theater of Belarus in May, 2012.
In October 2009 Mr. Simmons conducted the Sarajevo Philharmonic in the National Theater of Bosnia and Herzegovina. With U.S. Embassy support he conducted the St. George Strings (Belgrade, 2006) and Classic Avantgarde Soloists Ensemble (Minsk, 2008). Working with Sister Cities International he directed the President’s Orchestra (Moscow, 2001) and Dvorak Chamber Orchestra (Prague, 2006). He has conducted on several festivals in the Czech Republic, including concerts with the South Bohemia Chamber Philharmonic and Hradec Kralove Philharmonic. Abroad he has also led the Varna Chamber Orchestra, Slovak State Philharmonic, Haifa Symphony, Thueringen Philharmonie, and Ensemble Orchestra Sendai (Japan).
Mr. Simmons founded the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra in 1990, named “Chamber Ensemble of the Year 2000” by the Illinois Council of Orchestras. The orchestra partners with the Village of Lincolnwood and other cultural, educational, and presenting organizations to facilitate concerts and programs of cultural exchange. Relocating to the Big Island of Hawaii in 2009, Mr. Simmons founded the Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands, committed to helping sustain the 110 plus year tradition of orchestral music in Hawaii.
Past conducting positions include Music Director of the Russian-American Chamber Orchestra of Chicago, Lake Shore Symphony, and Glenview Symphony. From 2004-2008 Mr. Simmons served as Orchestra Director at Lake Forest Academy, and previously as Orchestra Director at Northeastern Illinois University. He has conducted the Chicago Youth Symphony and performed with the Civic Orchestra of Chicago (training orchestra for the Chicago Symphony). Community orchestras he has led include the Skokie Valley Symphony, Waukegan Symphony, La Porte Symphony (IN), and the Perrysburg Symphony (OH).
He has appeared with William Warfield, Lukas Foss, the Three Russian Tenors, Radoslav Kvapil, Anya Makarova, Philippe Muller, Pip Clarke, Charles Pikler, David Schrader, John Bruce Yeh, Denis Azabagic, Pip Clarke, Wendy Warner, Rachel Barton Pine, Danny Akaka, Jr., and the Maxwell Street Klezmer Band. Mr. Simmons has conducted many silent film scores on the Chicago Silent Summer Film Festival. His recordings include “Impressions of Saint Petersburg” (dedicated to Maestro Yuri Temirkanov, 2000), music of Alexander Tcherepnin (2003) and the 2005 short film “Help Me.”
Mr. Simmons received his Master’s Degree in Music Composition from DePaul University. In 1989 he attended the conducting seminar at Tanglewood, the last year it was coached by Leonard Bernstein. His teachers include Gustav Meier, Jorma Panula, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Alexander Polishuk, Yuri Siminov, Otto-Werner Mueller, Elizabeth Green, Michael Morgan, and Benjamin Zander.
A classical guitarist, Mr. Simmons has performed as soloist with every orchestra under his direction, as well as with the Civic Chamber Ensemble (Chicago), DePaul University Wind Ensemble, and the North Shore Chamber Orchestra. For a season he hosted ‘Meet the Maestro,” a monthly program on Glenview (IL) Cable Television. He served as Chair of the Wilmette (IL) Fine Arts Commission from 2006-2009, and is now an Advisory Board Member of Arts of Kona.
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