Simon de Souza (born c.1964) is a

French horn The French horn (since the 1930s known simply as the horn in professional music circles) is a brass instrument made of tubing wrapped into a coil with a flared bell. The double horn in F/B (technically a variety of German horn) is the horn most ...

teacher in the United Kingdom. He has been a tutor at the

Royal Birmingham Conservatoire The Royal Birmingham Conservatoire is a music school, drama school and concert venue in Birmingham, England. It provides professional education in music, acting, and related disciplines up to postgraduate level. It is a centre for scholarly res ...

since 2004; and

Wells Cathedral School Wells Cathedral School is a co-educational independent school located in Wells, Somerset, England. The school is one of the five specialist musical schools for school-age children in the United Kingdom, along with Chetham's School of Music, the ...

since the 1990s. He also taught at the

Purcell School The Purcell School for Young Musicians is a specialist music school for children, located in the town of Bushey, south Hertfordshire, England, and is the oldest specialist music school in the UK. The school was awarded the UNESCO Mozart Medal ...

and the junior departments of the

Trinity College of Music Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance is a music and dance conservatoire based in London, England. It was formed in 2005 as a merger of two older institutions – Trinity College of Music and Laban Dance Centre. The conservatoire has ...

and

Royal Academy of Music The Royal Academy of Music (RAM) in London, England, is the oldest conservatoire in the UK, founded in 1822 by John Fane and Nicolas-Charles Bochsa. It received its royal charter in 1830 from King George IV with the support of the first Duke of ...

Biography and playing career

De Souza was brought up in

Henley-on-Thames Henley-on-Thames ( ) is a town and civil parish on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England, northeast of Reading, west of Maidenhead, southeast of Oxford and west of London (by road), near the tripoint of Oxfordshire, Berkshire and Buc ...

. He studied under British horn teacher Ifor James, followed by postgraduate studies at Trinity College of Music in London. His performing career has seen him work with the

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) is a British orchestra based in Birmingham, England. It is the resident orchestra at Symphony Hall: a B:Music Venue in Birmingham, which has been its principal performance venue since 1991. Its a ...

Bolshoi Ballet The Bolshoi Ballet is an internationally renowned classical ballet company based at the Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, Russia. Founded in 1776, the Bolshoi is among the world's oldest ballet companies. In the early 20th century, it came to internatio ...

and particularly the quintet Chaconne Brass, with whom he has made four recordings and been broadcast on

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, Radio drama, drama, High culture, culture and the arts ...

Teaching

De Souza is renowned as a teacher. His past pupils include two under-18 winners of the Shell/LSO prize and a winner of the British final of the Paxman International Horn Competition; several former students hold principal positions in major British orchestras. He has worked with many youth orchestras, including the National Youth Wind Orchestra of Wales,

National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain The National Youth Wind Orchestra of Great Britain (NYWO) consists of around 75 young musicians aged 14 to 21 from England, Scotland and Wales. Members are required to hold a minimum instrument Grade 8 at distinction level and are selected by aud ...

, National Children's Wind Orchestra, National Schools Symphony Orchestra and

National Children's Orchestra of Great Britain The National Children's Orchestras of Great Britain, more commonly known as NCO, is a registered charity which provides orchestral training for children aged 7 to 14. The organisation comprises five age-banded orchestras and six regional orchestr ...

. He has written on horn teaching matters for publications including ''Music Teacher'' and the ''Hornplayer'' magazine, journal of the British Horn Society, of which he was vice-chair and educational consultant.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:De Souza, Simon 1964 births British music educators British classical horn players People from Henley-on-Thames Alumni of Trinity College of Music Living people