Simone Young was born in Sydney. She began her career in Germany and soon found herself making guest appearances at many of the great international opera houses. Prior to that, she was the Principal Guest Conductor of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (2017-2020), Principal Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic (1998-2002), Artistic Director of the Opera Australia (2001-2003), Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon, Artistic Director of the Hamburg Staatsoper and Musical Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic (2005-2015). Since July 2022, she is the chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra.She is considered by many to be a specialist of the operas of Wagner and Richard Strauss and performs on the world's most prestigious stages, including the Staatsoper in Vienna and the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin (where she directed the full cycle of the Ring), the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. During her tenure in Hamburg, she conducted numerous world premieres of new contemporary works as well as a vast repertoire of operas (by Mozart, Verdi, Puccini, Wagner, Strauss, Hindemith, Britten, and Henze). Last season, she has conducted Parsifal at the Paris Opera. During the 2022-2023 season, she will conduct Elektra and Die Fledermaus at the Vienna Staatsoper, Der Rosenkavalier at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, as well as concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, the Orchestre national de France, the Orquesta nacional de España, the Orchestre de la Suisse romande, the Philharmonia Zurich and the Orchestre national de Lyon.Her recordings include Mathis der Maler and The Ring with the Hamburg Staatsoper and the entire catalogue of symphonies by Bruckner in their original version as well as the symphonies of Brahms.