Antoine Simon (composer)

Antoine Simon, (Russian: Антон Юльевич Симон), (5 August 1850, Paris – 19 January 1916, Moscow) was a French composer, director and pianist, who made most of his career in Russia.

Antoine Simon studied at conservatoire de Paris in the piano class of Antoine François Marmontel and the musical composition class of Jules Duprato.

Aged twenty-one, Antoine Simon left for Moscow where he settled permanently. He was hired as a composer (Kapelmeister) for the Théâtre des Bouffes in Moscow and taught the piano for musical classes of the Philharmonic Society of Moscow. In 1897 he was appointed inspector of orchestras of the Imperial theaters.

Antoine Simon was one of the few composers in Russia at the time to create academic pieces for wind instruments, such as the quartet-like sonata Op. 23 for two cornets, oboe and trombone, or his twenty-two small pieces for ensemble, Op. 26, composed in 1887. Simon also composed three operas and a number of piano pieces. His concerto in A major for piano and orchestra, Op. 19, met with some success, as his concerto for clarinet and orchestra, Op. 31, or his fantaisie concertante for cello and orchestra, Op. 42. He also composed a trio for piano in D minor, Op. 16, a string quartet in A major, Op. 24, etc.

Simon also composed orchestrations for the ballet Don Quixote by Ludwig Minkus, in particular for the Danse de Mercedes and several variations, such as that of the dryads in the dream tableau. Antoine Simon composed his own compositions for ballet as well, like La Fille de Gudule, whose choreography was by Alexander Alexeyevich Gorsky, Les Étoiles (1898) by Khlioustine, Les Fleurs vivantes (1899), performed at Bolshoi Theatre.

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