The Australian pianist Simon Docking has performed as both solo and collaborative pianist in Australia, Canada, the United States, Mexico and Europe. In 1998 he completed a doctorate in piano performance at SUNY Stony Brook working with Gilbert Kalish, and on graduation was awarded the prestigious Thayer Fellowship for the Arts. Simon’s performances have appeared on CD and have been broadcast in Australia by the ABC and in Canada by the CBC, including solo recitals broadcast on Two New Hours.

A keen performer of contemporary music, Simon has premiered many new Australian and North American compositions, working with composers such as Matthew Hindson, Elliott Gyger, Ian Shanahan, Eric Morin and Daniel Koontz. He has been a founding member of several chamber groups, including the Australian new music ensemble, Coruscations, the New York new music ensemble, Furious Band, as well as the Toronto-based Rothko Trio, which was recently heard on the CBC’s Music Around Us series. Recent projects have included a Furious Band premiere of Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon’s opera Comala in Mexico City in November 2001, and a Soundstreams concert of music by Peter Sculthorpe and Eric Morin in Toronto in April 2002.

Simon’s passion for collaborative performance has resulted in work with a variety of artists and organizations. He has been a repetiteur for the Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, an assistant coach at the Banff Centre’s Contemporary Opera and Song Training program, and an instructor in the Voice Studies Department at the University of Toronto. Simon now makes his home in Halifax.