Artistic Director, ARC Ensemble
Simon Wynberg enjoys a diverse career as a guitarist, chamber musician and artistic director. He has programmed chamber-music festivals in Scotland and the Caribbean and was artistic director of Music at Speedside and the Guelph Spring Festival in Canada from 1994 to 2002. His entry in The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians describes him as “not only a virtuoso performer of distinction but one of the guitar’s foremost scholars.” He has edited over 60 volumes of hitherto unknown guitar music and his many recordings (on Chandos, ASV, Hyperion, Narada, Stradivari, Vox and Naxos) have received glowing reviews and awards, including a Penguin CD Guide Rosette; a Gramophone Critics’ Choice, and a Diapason Award. He has performed at the Newport, Bermuda, Sitka, Ann Arbor, Santa Fé and Ottawa chamber music festivals, at New York’s Bargemusic and throughout Europe, and collaborated with many celebrated artists; including the English Chamber Orchestra, the flautist William Bennett, the Gabrieli String Quartet and the violinists Mark Peskanov and Martin Beaver. He has been the Artistic Director of the ARC Ensemble (the ensemble-in-residence at Canada’s Royal Conservatory) since 2003 and curator of its musical projects, including the much-praised “Music in Exile” series. In the course of his work he has researched and recovered a number of neglected masterpieces which have garnered two Grammy nominations. He is the executive producer of the ensemble’s recordings and responsible for its ongoing growth and development.