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About Carlos Simon
"Carlos Simon is a young composer on the rise, with an ear for social justice."
Carlos Simon is a GRAMMY-nominated composer, curator and activist. Originally from Atlanta, Georgia, his compositions range from concert music for large and small ensembles to film scores with influences of jazz, gospel, and neo-romanticism. Simon is the Composer-in-Residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.
Latest Album
Four Symphonic Works
Recorded live from the Kennedy Center by the National Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, this compilation is the first full-length recording of Carlos Simon’s orchestral works. The album features Tales: A Folklore Symphony, The Block, Songs of Separation (featuring J’Nai Bridges), and Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra. Released in August 2024.
See album details
Works
“A modern major composer: an artist whose windows are thrown wide open to the world, and whose musical scope of late lands like a grand panorama of American life.”
Schedule
October 17-19, 2024
New York Philharmonic
Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances pays homage to the wide range of Black American dance traditions while Nathalie Joachim’s newly-penned cello concerto written for Seth Parker Woods honors the transformation of African fashion. Driving rhythms of David Baker’s Kosbro are followed by William Grant Still's Autochthonous Symphony, which portrays, in his words, “the fusion of musical cultures in North America.” Thomas Wilkins conducts.