The versatility of two-time Grammy-nominated baritone, Simon Barrad, has been heard in genre-bending concerts across the United States and Europe. His talent for unique and innovative programming and arranging – melding new and old, jazz and drama, classical technique and heartfelt folk idioms – has led to recent features in the United States at the Art of the Piano Festival, the Ravinia Festival, Stanford Live, the Marlboro Music Festival, Cincinnati Opera, and Opera San Jose. His recent performance highlights include debuts at Wigmore Hall in London, the Philadelphia Chamber Music Society, and the Austin Symphony Orchestra.  The 2015/16 Fulbright scholar to Finland has headlined several concerts across the Atlantic including performances at Helsinki’s Musiikkitalo, Finland’s National Opera House, and the Berlin Philharmonie. Through his performing and as a former mentor for ArtSmart, which provides free music and singing lessons to teenagers in underserved communities, Simon strives to build a more equitable world of empathy and understanding through music.

Simon is also an avid lover and performer of jazz, new music, and ensemble singing.  He is a four-time Downbeat magazine national award winner for vocal jazz, and he has performed at the Monterey Jazz Festival, ADCA conventions across the country, and the Grammys as a member of the Grammy vocal jazz ensemble. Simon regularly performs with Austin-based ensemble Conspirare and was the baritone soloist for their national tour of Considering Matthew Shepard.  In the realm of new music, he has consistently championed new works, giving first performances of works by John Harbison, David Lang, and many others, as well as performing at the John Duffy Composer Institute under the direction of Libby Larsen.

Mr. Barrad has collaborated with artists including Mitsuko Uchida, Jonathan Biss, Awadagin Pratt, and Ignat Solzhenitsyn.  He is an avid linguist and has spent years studying French, Russian, German, Spanish, Italian, and Finnish. He has completed word for word translations and IPA transcriptions of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mozart and Salieri, Borodin’s Prince Igor, and a side by side comparison of the libretti of Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Katerina Izmailova.