Simon Capet (pronounced Ka-pay) knew his place in the orchestra pit before he even knew where his seat was in the kindergarten classroom. As part of three generations of professional classical musicians, he was born with music in his blood.

Growing up in London gave Simon the opportunities to break new ground in classical music from an early age. Conducting already at 14, Simon directed the Wakefield Youth Symphony Orchestra in a concert of Dvorak’s New World Symphony. At 15 he began his studies at the Royal College of Music, and then won an exhibition scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music. After leaving the Royal Academy in 1990, Simon held posts as Music Director for the Pegasus Ensemble, Battersea Arts Centre Opera, The Middlesex Philharmonic, and the Harrow Symphony.

Flash forward to today, Simon is an innovative and award winning conductor, having received the Brian McMaster Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera and the Rio Tinto Alcan Performing Arts Award for his work as Music Director for the Modern Baroque Opera in Vancouver, Canada, where he also served as the Music Coordinator and Assistant Conductor for the Vancouver Opera, starting in 1995.

After making his Carnegie Hall debut with the New York Pops in February of 2009, Simon returned to the West Coast of Canada where since 2005 he has been the Music Director for the Victoria Philharmonic Choir. He shook up the choral world in 2007 with a modern rendition and unusual production of Dvorak’s The Spectre’s Bride. With a creative team that included the design skills of Disney and Pixar Studio's Michel Gagne, and Emmy award winning puppeteer Tim Gosley. Simon worked with writer Mollie Kaye to totally re-write the outdated and avuncular English libretto and made the piece literally come to life using shadow puppet dramatization; reviving this neglected masterpiece and introducing it to a new generation of concert goers.

Currently, Simon travels between Canada, the US, and Europe, guest conducting while developing his exciting new, web-based series Conducted Tours (www.conductedtours.tv)