Born in Sydney, baritone Simon Lobelson spent his childhood in Brussels and currently resides in London.  On a scholarship from the University of Sydney, he obtained first-class honours in his Bachelor of Music degree. Later, whilst studying with John Pringle, he won the Tinkler Award in the 2003 Australian Singing Competition. Awarded a Stanley Picker Scholarship and a Martin Harris Scholarship from London’s Royal College of Music, Simon began his postgraduate studies in September 2003 under the tutelage of Roderick Earle. He has sung in public master classes with Sir Thomas Allen, David Syrus, Rudolf Piernay, Roger Vignoles, Gerald Finley, Stephen Varcoe, Sarah Walker, Dame Kiri Te Kanawa, Richard Van Allan, Philip Langridge, Craig Rutenberg and Margaret Honig. He recently completed his studies at the prestigious Benjamin Britten International Opera School of the RCM with distinction, and currently studies with Sir Donald McIntyre. He is a finalist in the 2011 Wagner Society Competition and a Tait Memorial Trust 2011 Bursary recipient.

Amongst several other concert appearances, Simon was a soloist with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra in Sofia Gubaidulina’s Jetzt immer Schnee, in which “all acquitted themselves with distinction, in particular bass Simon Lobelson” (Opera-opera). He repeated his performance of this in September 2006 for the Lucerne Festival under the direction of Daniel Reuss, after returning from having given recitals in Vienna of music from the First and Second Viennese Schools (which has been commercially recorded). Simon was invited back to the Lucerne Festival in 2009 as guest soloist in Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia, again conducted by Pierre Boulez. He has also sung the baritone solos in Rameau’s Les Grands Motets with Sydney Philharmonia Choirs, Vaughan Williams’ Five Tudor Portraits in the Sydney Town Hall, Handel’s Messiah at the LSO St. Lukes in which he “delivered his solos with pulsating warmth, vigour and originality” (Orpheus), Haydn’s Nelson Mass with the London Mozart Players and the Israel Camerata on tour (recorded live and available commercially), Stanford’s Songs of the Fleet and Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in The Music Hall Aberdeen, of which Aberdeen Press and Journal reviewed him as “the excellent Australian-born baritone Simon Lobelson …It takes a lot of power and confidence to front several hundred performers but Lobelson was well equipped,”.Karen Wimhurst’s We Breathe Trees with the Ten Tors Orchestra, Bach’s Ascension Oratorio alongside James Bowman, Schubert’s Mass in E flat at Snape Maltings, Haydn’s Creation on the Isle of Wight, Goodall’s Eternal Light Requiem in Arundel Cathedral, Beethoven’s Mass in C in York Minster, Fauré’s Requiem, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem and Solemn Vespers with the Liverpool Sinfonia, Missa Brevis in D minor and Great Mass in C minor in Birmingham Symphony Hall and Durham Cathedral, Schubert’s Stabat Mater, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Brahms’ Ein Deutsches Requiem in Brecon Cathedral, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Sheffield Cathedral, Haydn’s Missa in Tempore Belli, Handel’s Israel in Egypt, Vaughan Williams’ Dona nobis pacem, Charpentier’s Messe de Minuit and Magnificat, Shostakovich’s Rayok, Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on Christmas Carols at The Sydney Opera House and St. Martin-in-the-Fields and Bach’s Johannes-Passion for the Brighton Festival and at St. Mary’s Cathedral Sydney, as well as having appeared as a soloist on BBC Radio 3, both ABC Classic FM and 2MBS FM, and on the in-flight soundtrack for British Airways and Qantas flights.

Most recent operatic appearances include Doctor Falke in Die Fledermaus “who fielded beautifully rounded tone and phrased extremely elegantly” (Rodney Milnes, Opera), Don Alfonso in Mozart’s Così fan tutte, L’Horloge Comtoise and Le Chat in Ravel’s L’Enfant et le Sortilèges, Ramiro in Ravel’s L’Heure espagnole, Junius in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia and Geôlier in Dialogues des Carmélites for the Benjamin Britten International Opera School, Osmin in Mozart’s Zaide at Sadlers Wells and Buxton Opera Festival for The Classical Opera Company that showed “real ability with the text. Not unconnectedly [whose] singing was the most expressive” (George Hall, Opera), Prow and Fiddler in Ludd and Isis for the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Alberich (cover) in Wagner’s Siegfried for Longborough Festival Opera, Mittenhofer (cover) in Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers for English National Opera, a “wily, pesonable Figaro, who delivered his self-promoting aria with many a flourish and musicianship that gave due regard to words and music” (Margaret Davies, Opera) in The Barber of Seville for Swansea City Opera and The Garden Opera Company, the title role in Rigoletto and Escamillo in Carmen for Opera Novella,The Father (cover) in Kurt Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins for The Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Opera Galas with the Kent Sinfonia in China, Starveling in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream for Longborough Festival Opera, Quinalt in Cilea’s Adriana Lecouvreur at the Queen Elizabeth Hall alongside Nelly Miriciou and Rosalind Plowright, Aeneas (cover) in Purcell’s After Dido for English National Opera, Joabel in Charpentier’s David et Jonathas for Pinchgut Opera (released on ABC Classics), Mr. Easter/Mr. Jones in an Evening Standard Award-winning production of Weill’s Street Scene at the Young Vic and Buxton Opera Festival, Masetto in Don Giovanni for The Opera Project and English Touring Opera, Nottingham in Donizetti’s Roberto Devereux in Spain, Don Alfonso for British Youth Opera, The Prig in Elizabeth Maconchy’s The Sofa at Sadlers Wells (released commercially on Chandos), Plunkett in Martha with Haddo House Opera, Marcello in La Bohème for British Youth Opera in Italy and France, L’Horloge Comtoise and Le Chat in L’Enfant et les Sortilèges for the European Opera Centre in Greece and Cyprus, the Drunken Poet in Purcell’s The Fairy Queen with Pinchgut Opera (which he has recorded for ABC Classics), of which Gramophone magazine wrote “Pinchgut Opera play to the gallery more in matters of theatrical impact…. Such is the case with the Drunken Poet scene which is a brilliant affair (a testament to bass Simon Lobelson’s deft communicative skills),” and the world premiere of Errollyn Wallen’s Another America: Fire – a collaboration between Push, ROH2 at the Royal Opera House and English National Opera – and workshops on Langers’ The Lion’s Face as The Scientist for the Opera Group, as Filip Filipovisj on Raskatov’s A Dog’s Heart for The Netherlands Opera and Complicité, on Luke Bedford’s Paradise Lost for the Aldeburgh Festival and Opera Group, and on Turnage’s Anna Nicole Smith for the Royal Opera House.  Opera Now magazine hailed him as “an outstanding Junius . . . a beckoning future” while of the same role Opera called him “a vigorous baritone with a watchful, Iago-like depiction of the character who originates rather than enacts the crime.” Opera Now recently wrote that “Better yet was Simon Lobelson’s Doctor Falke: a classy performance, his baritone finessed and honed (like a young Gidon Saks) – and a dab hand as an actor too,” and Opera also wrote [of his performances in Greece of L’Enfant et les Sortilèges] that “Simon Lobelson’s warm, centred baritone thrillingly threw off the frenzied plaints of the Grandfather Clock, and gave a seductive edge to his sinuous feline Lothario.”

His other stage repertoire in Australia and the UK has included the title roles in Le Nozze di Figaro and Britten’s Noye’s Fludde, Guglielmo in Così fan tutte, Dancaïro in Carmen, Pirate King in the Pirates of Penzance, Wilfrid Shadbolt in The Yeomen of the Guard, Bunthorne in Patience, King Hildebrand in Princess Ida, Macheath in The Beggar’s Opera, Indian Boy in Purcell’s The Indian Queen, Tiresias in Richard Gill’s Oedipus and Papageno in The Magic Flute.  A review of the latter in Opera~opera stated that “Simon Lobelson’s musicality was made manifest as soon as he opened his mouth and he continued to reaffirm that snap judgement all night . . . obviously, too, he is one of those guys who loves being on stage; a born performer, radiating a charm which is all but impossible to resist . . . an ebullient, unselfconscious stage presence coupled with his natural singing style.”