About Simon:
Simon Tedeschi is one of Australias most renowned classical pianists, and a critically acclaimed writer. Recipient of the Young Performer of the Year Award, the Creativity Foundations Legacy Award (USA), the New York Young Jewish Pianist Award and a Centenary of Federation Medal, he has performed for audiences, royalty and world leaders worldwide, from the Sydney Opera House to Carnegie Hall via the Abu Dhabi and Shanghai Arts Festivals. A regular guest on ABC TV, for ABC Classic and Radio National, Simons reach extends into film, featuring in celebrated director Scott Hicks film, The Musical Mind: A Portrait in Process alongside musical luminaries Daniel Johns, Ben Folds, and David Helfgott, and winning Best cinematography in the 2025 AACTA Awards.
Acclaimed by respected critics and peers as true greatness (SMH), Simon performed his first Mozart piano concerto in the Sydney Opera House aged nine, later studying and performing in the USA. Since returning to Sydney, he regularly performs as soloist with all the major Australasian symphony orchestras, and tours nationally for festivals, venues and presenters including Musica Viva Australia.
Simon Tedeschi co-wrote and toured internationally the Sydney Opera House Meeting Mozart childrens show (produced by CDP, with four sell-out seasons in Sydney alone), and a number of shows combining words and music, for Monkey Baa Theatre, and with Australian theatre icon, John Bell AO OBE. In 2024, Tedeschi created with Roger Benedict When George met Arnold, exploring the music and late friendship of George Gershwin and Arnold Schoenberg, premiered to a packed Sydney Opera House Concert Hall featuring the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and film. Alongside further performances with John Bell, Tedeschi also continues his forays into jazz, this year playing a number of jazz-leaning programs including for Jazz At The Lounge at Sydneys Concourse, and various concerts with jazz violinist/vocalist George Washingmachine.
Simons latest classical album, Debussy Ravel with violist and conductor Roger Benedict, received a 2023 ARIA award nomination for Best Classical Album, adding to his critically acclaimed recordings for ABC Classics/Universal Music such as The Gershwin Collection, Mussorgskys Pictures at an Exhibition, R. Strauss Enoch Arden, and concerti by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Grieg.
Alongside his performing career, Tedeschi is fast gaining renown as a writer of note, winning the prestigious Calibre Essay Prize for 2022; Tedeschis critically acclaimed literary debut, Fugitive (for Upswell Publishing) was shortlisted in both the 2023 Victorian Premiers Literary Awards, and Judith Wright Calanthe Award for a Poetry Collection. Speaking engagements include for Sydney Writers Festival and more. www.simontedeschi.com
George Washingmachine is an entertainer, working mainly in the jazz world. A jazz violinist and vocalist, he also writes music, and occasionally plays the guitar and double bass. George has played all of the major festivals around Australia and performs for many corporate clients. He tours regularly in Europe, appearing at festivals in France, Switzerland (Ascona Jazz Festival) and the UK. In 2015 he toured his group Feel the Manouche to Havana International Jazz Festival (Cuba); he has played Singapore Jazz Festival, and most recently toured across USA from New Orleans to New York and Seattle. Closer to home, George has performed nationally in The Conductor & The Clown with maestro George Ellis, toured with John Waters in his show, 'Bob Dylan Revisited' and more recently, with classical pianist Simon Tedeschi. George is also a visual artist. www.georgewashingmachine.com