Abbey Simon has been hailed as a super-virtuoso whose appearances in the concert halls of the world have been eagerly anticipated not only by music lovers, but also by professional musicians who come to hear him spin his own particular magic. He is recognized as one of the grand masters of the piano.

Through the years, critics have hailed Simon’s mastery and noted that his playing had its roots in the great pianists of the past. Boston Globe critic Richard Dyer wrote, “Simon’s recital offered more than a glimpse into the fabled golden age of piano playing…His virtuosity is marked not only by speed, power, lightness and accuracy but also by intricate interplay of voices and lambent colors.” Critic Scott MacClelland reported from the West Coast, “…when they’ve written the final chapter on great pianists of the 20th century, the name Abbey Simon will be included. Indeed, that name might well mark the first chapter on 21st-century pianists as well.”

Improvising at the piano at the age of three, he had perfect pitch and began taking lessons at the age of five. At the age of eleven, Simon was accepted by Josef Hofmann to the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia, where he studied with David Saperton, the son-in-law of Leopold Godowsky. At Curtis he trained alongside fellow classmates Jorge Bolet, Leonard Bernstein, and Samuel Barber.

Upon graduation from Curtis, Simon went on to win numerous awards. He made his official debut in New York’s Town Hall as winner of the prestigious Walter W. Naumburg Award in 1940. Following this success, he performed at New York’s Carnegie Hall a number of times, followed by extensive tours throughout the US and Canada, which were interrupted only for enlistment in the United States Army during World War II.

After an audition, Dimitri Mitropoulos was moved to write of Simon’s playing:

I confess that rarely has a young artist given me such deep musical satisfaction and brilliant technique at the same time. The boy, for me, has tremendous possibilities to compete with the most outstanding musical personalities of America, because I believe that he possesses not only pianistic abilities, but he also has a musical mind and soul of the first rank.

This glowing endorsement led to appearances with America’s major orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, Minneapolis Symphony, San Antonio Symphony, and Buffalo Philharmonic, among others.

Simon’s first New York recital in Carnegie Hall was deemed of such unusual merit, and received such critical acclaim, that he was awarded an appearance with the National Orchestral Association, under the leadership of Leon Barzin, for having given the most outstanding piano recital of the year in New York by an artist under the age of 30.

In his first tour of the major centers of Europe, which included Rome, The Hague, Amsterdam, Paris and London, Mr. Simon was enthusiastically acclaimed by capacity audiences and the European press. One critic summed it up thus:

One can try to describe the masterly playing of Abbey Simon, thereby having to exhaust all existing superlatives, but the mysterious beauty of his playing cannot be described by words. We have heard much music in that very hall, but one has to think back 20 years until Horowitz’s debut, to remember an equal event.

Another critic wrote, “A pianist giant…the name of Abbey Simon has to be remembered.”

In Scandinavia, he was hailed by the press as the finest American pianist to have played in that part of Europe.

In London, Simon received another accolade when he was awarded the Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Medal for having given the best performance in London by any artist, on any instrument, that year. His success in Europe was so great that he did not return to the US for some 12 years.

On his first tour of South America, Simon had one of the most phenomenal successes by any artist, playing five recitals in Caracas, four in Lima, five in Buenos Aires, three in Montevideo, plus numerous provincial concerts and orchestral arrangements, resulting in immediate re-engagements for the following season in all places where he had played. He later toured South America nine times.

He has been the recipient of the Federation of Music Clubs Award, the National Orchestral Association Award, and a Ford Foundation Award. Following his debut in Europe, he received the Harriet Cohen International Music Award.

Abbey Simon has been heard with most of the great orchestras of Europe under such eminent conductors as Sir John Barbirolli, Josef Krips, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Walter Susskind, Colin Davis, Antal Dorati, Rafael Kubelik, George Szell, Eduard van Beinum, Carlo Maria Giulini, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, and Erich Leinsdorf.

Simon’s recordings for Philips, EMI, HMV, and Vox make him one of the most recorded classical artists of all time. He has recorded all the concertos of Rachmaninoff, the complete works of Ravel, and Schumann’s Carnaval and Fantasy. His Chopin collection encompasses some 20 discs.

Of the recording of Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit, Stereo Review wrote:

Pianist Abbey Simon has achieved in this recording, performances of the piano music of Ravel which I can only describe as being among the best I have ever heard (and I have heard some good ones!). What makes these remarkable even by comparison with the other “greats” is Simon’s immensely authoritative feeling for the rhythmic structuring, which, when it is fully felt and expressed in Ravel, takes the music over into another dimension of meaning… These are as close to ideal performances as I ever expect to hear, and the recorded sound is well-nigh perfect.

Abbey Simon has served on the faculties of such noted schools as Indiana University, the Manhattan School of Music, The Juilliard School. In 1977, Simon joined the University of Houston School of Music faculty, where he held the Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen Distinguished Professor of Music Chair until his retirement in 2019.

He has given masterclasses at the Royal Academy of Music in London, Royal Conservatory of The Hague, and the Geneva Conservatory. In addition, Abbey Simon has served as jury member of the Van Cliburn, Geneva, Leeds, Clara Haskil, Sydney and South Africa international piano competitions.

Beginning his career as a Steinway artist, Simon spent the majority of his performing years as a Baldwin artist, later moving to the Yamaha artist roster when the Baldwin Piano Company declared bankruptcy in 2001.

His autobiography, Inner Voices, written in collaboration with his former student Garnet Ungar, was released in 2017.