Carlos Simon | Kennedy Center

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Carlos Simon behind the REACH at the Kennedy Center

Carlos Simon Continues as Kennedy Center Composer-in-Residence

Grammy®-nominated Carlos Simon is a multi-genre composer and performer who is a passionate advocate for diversity in music. As Composer-in-Residence at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Simon is a unique voice and sought-after cultural ambassador for new music globally.

Described by the Los Angeles Times as a composer who “refashions musical history as excitable new realms with an unmistakable musical purpose essential for our times,” Grammy®-nominated Carlos Simon is a multi-faceted and highly sought-after composer and curator. Simon is the current composer-in-residence for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and holds the position of inaugural composer chair of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the first in the institution’s 143-year history.

Simon’s work spans genres, with influences from jazz and gospel, taking great inspiration from liturgical texts, art, and poetry. Upcoming performances include premieres with the National Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra for the Last Night of the Proms, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Jacksonville Symphony, Cincinnati Pops, Carnegie Hall for NYO-USA, and the LA Philharmonic for his highly anticipated Gospel Mass.

Simon has released three albums on Decca: Together, a compendium of chamber works featuring performances by Carlos and close collaborators; brea(d)th, a live recording of a commission by Minnesota Orchestra in honor of George Floyd; and Requiem for the Enslaved, which earned a 2023 Grammy® nomination for Best Contemporary Classical Composition. In August 2024, the NSO released the album Four Symphonic Works—comprised of live recordings from the Kennedy Center conducted by Gianandrea Noseda. This marks the first full-length album of Simon’s orchestral works.

“If Simon has inherited anything from his lineage, it appears to be a desire to build bridges between worlds, and use music to illuminate them.”—The Washington Post

In addition to numerous compositions presented by the Kennedy Center, Carlos Simon is deeply involved in the Center’s Social Impact work, an initiative that advances justice and equity within society through the arts. Together with Kennedy Center Vice President and Artistic Director of Social Impact Marc Bamuthi Joseph, Simon composed the opera it all falls down as part of Written in Stone—a project commemorating the Kennedy Center’s 50th anniversary—for Washington National Opera. He also composed , as part of the Kennedy Center’s inaugural Cartography Project, commissioned by the Kennedy Center and the Washington National Opera. The project focused on the concept of “Black Dignity” and created a musical map of incidents of extrajudicial violence. Simon also mentors composers whose works answer the question “What are we doing to shape the Black lives of tomorrow?” as part of the second iteration of the Cartography Project.

Carlos Simon came to the attention of Washington National Opera though its prestigious annual American Opera Initiative (AOI). This program commissions and mentors three American composer-librettist teams, culminating in staged performances of their 20-minute operas. Selected for AOI in 2019, Simon’s first commissioned work at the Kennedy Center was Night Trip with librettist Sandra Seaton. Following the success of Night Trip, WNO Artistic Director Francesca Zambello commissioned Simon and Seaton to write a chamber opera for the Glimmerglass Festival, The Passion of Mary Cardwell Dawson, which the WNO performed in 2023 starring Denyce Graves. Furthermore, WNO commissioned Simon and Kennedy Center inaugural Education Artist-in-Residence Mo Willems to write an opera for families, Slopera! A Bite-Sized Opera, which was performed during the pandemic. Upon that success, the pair was also commissioned to write a second family opera, Don’t Let the Pigeon Sing Up Late!. WNO also commissioned Simon’s it all falls down and The Road Ahead as part of Written in Stone and the Cartography Project, respectively.

Carlos Simon’s relationship with the National Symphony Orchestra began in 2019 when he arranged charts for the orchestra’s Pops concerts. The NSO recorded a concert of Simon’s works for the Center’s Digital Stage+ platform and performed his Tales—A Folklore Symphony, The Block, This Land, and others in its subscription concerts and as part of several NSO community outreach performances. The NSO commissioned Simon’s Songs of Separation, which it performed with mezzo-soprano J’Nai Bridges, broadcast live from the Concert Hall on in the 2022–2023 season. Simon’s next orchestral commission, Wake Up! Concerto for Orchestra, will be performed by the NSO at the Kennedy Center on January 25–27, 2024. This work will also be presented by the NSO on its 2024 Europe Tour in February. Simon will join the Orchestra on tour in Berlin, Milan, and Madrid for the European premiere performances. In addition to his compositions, Simon has also mentored students in the National Symphony Orchestra’s annual Summer Music Institute—a summer training program for high school and college instrumentals across the country interested in pursuing a career as a professional musician.

Simon wrote the theme music for the Kennedy Center Honors (2022 and 2023) and the Kennedy Center’s series on PBS, NEXT at the Kennedy Center.
Simon composed music for a new dance, , featuring eleven black dancers from historically white ballet companies as part of the Kennedy Center’s .

草莓视频免费版app is proud to announce a three-year extension for Composer-in-Residence Carlos Simon through the 2026–2027 season. Carlos began his residency in the 2021–2022 season and has had a total of 19 works programmed, including nine commissions. Working across genres, Carlos has been commissioned to write operas, music for dance, the theme music for the Kennedy Center Honors, and symphonic works.

Carlos Simon discusses his latest composition co-commissioned by the National Symphony Orchestra.

NSO Principal Pops Conductor Steven Reineke leads the National Symphony Orchestra in a program of Carlos Simon's works, featuring commentary by Simon. Rehanna Thelwell of Washington National Opera's Cafritz Young Artists narrates Simon's piece Portrait of a Queen.

Based on the book, I Really Like Slop!, and with libretto by Mo Willems, Carlos Simon’s 20-minute opera for young audiences premiered in 2021 with performances around the Washington, DC area on WNO’s Pop-Up Opera Truck.

More information at kennedy-center.org/slopera

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Carlos Simon Composer-in-Residence Announcement

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