Simon Tedeschi (b. 1981), award-winning classical pianist, grew up in Sydney, and essentially abandoned his school lessons as an adolescent to concentrate on his piano studies with Neta Maughan. He first performed a Mozart piano concerto in the Sydney Opera House when he was nine, and has barely stopped since, performing in major concert halls and festivals around the world. In 1994 he scooped the pool of awards at the Italian International Piano Competition; as a result, he toured the USA in 1995. In 1996 he was chosen as one of only twenty pianists worldwide to attend the Van Cliburn Institute in Texas; he was one of only three chosen to perform at the end of the residency. In 1998 he was named the Symphony Australia Young Performer of the Year and received a Queen's Trust Overseas Study Award; in 2002, having moved to London to study under Noretta Conci, he won the keyboard section of the Royal Overseas League Music Competition. Based in the USA for many years, he performed with the Colorado, Forth Worth and Illinois symphony orchestras. Since returning to Australia in 2009, Tedeschi has performed as a soloist with all the major symphony orchestras and has recorded acclaimed albums for ABC Classics/Universal Music. Playing a strong part in introducing a new generation of Australians to classical music, Tedeschi has appeared on the ABC television popular music program Spicks and Specks and has spoken candidly of his upbringing on the biography program Australian Story. Cherry Hood's portrait of Tedeschi won the Archibald Prize in 2002.
