Simone Young

Young was born in Sydney, of Irish ancestry on her father's side and Croatian ancestry on her mother's. Young was educated at the Monte Sant'Angelo Mercy College in North Sydney. She studied composition, piano and conducting at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music.

Beginning in 1983, Young worked at Opera Australia as a répétiteur under various conductors, including Charles Mackerras, Richard Bonynge, Carlo Felice Cillario and Stuart Challender. Young started her operatic conducting career at the Sydney Opera House in 1985. In 1986 she was the first woman and youngest person to be appointed a resident conductor with Opera Australia. She received an Australia Council grant to study overseas, and was named Young Australian of the Year. In her early years, she was assistant to James Conlon, and Kapellmeister, at the Cologne Opera, and assistant to Daniel Barenboim at the Berlin State Opera and the Bayreuth Festival. From 1998 until 2002, Young was principal conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in Norway.

From 2001 to 2003, Young was chief conductor of Opera Australia in Sydney. Her contract was not renewed after 2003; one reason offered was the expense of her programming ideas.

Young made her first conducting appearance at the Hamburg State Opera in 1996. In May 2003, she was named both chief executive of the Hamburg State Opera and chief conductor of the Philharmoniker Hamburg, posts which she assumed in 2005. In 2006, she became Professor of Music and Theatre at the University of Hamburg. Critics of the magazine Opernwelt selected her in October 2006 as the Dirigentin des Jahres (Conductor of the Year). In December 2011, it was announced that Young would conclude her tenures with both the Hamburg State Opera and the Hamburg Philharmonic after the 2014/2015 season.

Young was the first female conductor at the Vienna State Opera in 1993. She conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra when they performed Elena Kats-Chernin's "Deep Sea Dreaming" at the 2000 Summer Olympics opening ceremony in Sydney. In November 2005, she was the first female conductor to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic. Her discography includes the complete symphonies of Anton Bruckner and the complete Ring Cycle of Richard Wagner, where she was the first female conductor to have recorded either of these cycles. She has also recorded the complete cycle of Brahms' symphonies.

In August 2008, Young appeared as part of the judging panel in the reality TV talent show-themed program Maestro on BBC Two. In December 2012, she was voted Limelight magazine's Music Personality of the Year. In 2022, Young was that magazine's critic's choice as Australian Artist of the Year.

In 2013, in commemoration of the bicentenaries for Richard Wagner and for Giuseppe Verdi, Young conducted the entire 'Bayreuth canon' of ten Wagner operas at a festival entitled Wagner-Wahn (Wagner Madness) in Hamburg, along with three rarely performed Verdi operas as a trilogy in September to November – La battaglia di Legnano, I due Foscari, I Lombardi alla prima crociata. In March 2016, Young was appointed a member of the board of the Europäische Musiktheater-Akademie (European Academy of Music Theatre).

Young had first guest-conducted the Sydney Symphony Orchestra (SSO) in 1996. In December 2019, the SSO announced the appointment of Young as its next chief conductor, effective in 2022, with an initial contract of 3 years. Young is the first female conductor to be named chief conductor of the SSO. In February 2024, the SSO announced the extension of Young's contract as its chief conductor through the end of 2026. In September 2025 her contract was extended to late 2029.

In 2024 Simone Young became the first woman to conduct Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Bayreuth Festival.

In 2025 she was ranked the 10th busiest performer in Europe and North America according to the Bachtrack’s Classical Music Statistics 2025 list.

Young is married to Greg Condon, and has two daughters. She made her first appearance at the Metropolitan Opera while she was five months pregnant and conducted at the Vienna State Opera one month prior to giving birth in 1997.