Simon Ballard is a British pianist, composer and teacher and was born in Warwickshire. When he was eleven, he won a Foundation Scholarship to the Birmingham Conservatoire where he studied with Lilian Niblette and Tom Bromley. He became a full-time student there at the age of sixteen, having already played concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra whilst still at school. He then began studies in cello and flute as well as continuing to study piano with the Austrian pianist Katharina Wolpe in London. For three years he was the pianist of the Dussek Ensemble, with four members of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. He is well known as a concerto player, with over sixty concertos in his repertoire and as a solo recitalist for the BBC.
He has been recognised as one of the most gifted interpreters of the music of Mozart and has played all twenty-three concertos and has also done much to publicise the works of the lesser known and unjustly neglected composers, such as Hummel, Moscheles, Dussek and Field.
He was Head of Woodwind in the London Borough of Merton for eighteen years, is an oboist and clarinettist of distinction and taught the cello at the Brighton Music Centre. His teaching experience amounts to well over thirty years – much of it in the classroom as a Head of Department.
A prolific composer, he is a strong believer in tonality and melody and has produced an impressive canon of mostly Chamber music. He is also a Festival Adjudicator of much experience and as a performer has played throughout Britain and beyond.
He lives in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire, performs regularly in solo and chamber works and plays both the viola and the cello in various orchestras. He continues to publish his own works, perform and record. Recently, he has completed recordings of the entire output of piano music by Dvorak and has recorded all of his own piano works.