Simon Crawford-Phillips has built a distinctive career as a pianist, conductor, and creative programmer. Passionate about contemporary music, he has conducted world premieres of works by Thomas Adès, Britta Byström, Helen Grime, Steve Reich, and Mark-Anthony Turnage, among others.

He has held the positions of Chief Conductor of the Västerås Sinfonietta (2016–2028) and Assistant Conductor of the NDR Elbphilharmonie. In 2023, he made a critically acclaimed debut with the Royal Opera in Stockholm conducting Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. His recent conducting debuts include the Stockholm and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras, the Gävle and Norrköping Symphony Orchestras, and the Swedish and Scottish Chamber Orchestras.

As a pianist with the Kungsbacka Trio, the Nash Ensemble, the Stockholm Syndrome Ensemble, the Moore/Crawford-Phillips Duo, and the Colin Currie Group, he has performed worldwide and recorded for BIS, Orchid, Hyperion, and Deutsche Grammophon. Upcoming releases include works by Daniel Börtz, Ravel, Sebastian Fagerlund, Djuro Zivkovic, and a piano duo album featuring music by Schubert and Bach/Kurtág.

His regular collaborators include Malin Broman, Daniel Hope, Pekka Kuusisto, Anne Sofie von Otter, Lawrence Power, Torleif Thedéen, the Elias String Quartet, and the Chamber Ensemble of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. Many of them have performed with Simon during his tenure as Artistic Director of the Change Music Festival and Co-Director of the Wye Valley Chamber Music Festival.