Simon comes from Kent and has pursued a double career as a talented composer as well as pianist – with composing his main path to the future. He won the top composition prize at the Royal Academy of Music – the Eric Coates Prize - as a student, and still young, subsequently embarked on an unbroken chain of successful commissions, mainly concertos, many tailor made to the exact ing requirements of some of the distinguished commissioning instrumentalists and conductors.

One of his most notable achievements was to get the film composer John Williams to conduct the Boston Symphony Orchestra in his concerto for serpent. His Lyrical Concerto was performed at the Sydney Opera House, his Windy City concerto was played in Chicago. The English Chamber Orchestra commissioned his Asprey Fanfare and his Bassoon Concerto; clarinettist Emma Johnson premiered his Clarinet Concerto, the LSO's John Wallace, no less gave the first performance of his Trumpet Concerto, and the LPO's former trombone star Ian Bousfield, now with the Vienna Philharmonic, gave the first performance of his Trombone Concerto.

As a pianist Simon has found time to play all over the world - as a composer he finds time to handwrite every note on every page by hand - 'I don’t do computers' - and as to how he got the Boston Symphony to play his concerto , 'I just sent it to them and they seemed to like it'.

A major new choral work by the composer is scheduled for its world premiere in Maidstone, Kent, in mid-November 2007.