I’m a music historian, composer, and educator.

I’m currently at Stanford University pursuing a PhD in Musicology, previously of The Juilliard School (DMA, MM, BM in Composition). This website includes details about my research interests, selected compositions, teaching background, and various writings and projects. You can find a formal biography below.

Biography

Simon Frisch is an American musicologist and composer currently based in Palo Alto, California. A recent doctoral graduate of The Juilliard School, he was the 2021-22 recipient of a joint Fulbright-Harriet Hale Woolley fellowship as a resident composer and researcher at the Fondation des États-Unis and Conservatoire de Paris, respectively. Performances and commissions include Fais doncq ung chant/Requiem for The New Consort, commemorating Josquin des Prez at 500; the New York, Latvian, and Portuguese recital premieres of marginalia ii for solo piano; The Body Untied for soloists and baroque chamber orchestra, presented in New York City by Amanda+James, BZH NY, Région Bretagne, lightbox, and others; and Sandglass Vespers for chamber orchestra, premiered at Alice Tully Hall by the New Juilliard Ensemble.

Increasingly active as a scholar and historian, Simon has been invited to speak at Columbia Global Centers in Paris, on The Juilliard School’s Forum series for visiting scholars, and at the Arazzo Music Festival, as well as presenting at international academic conferences. His thesis work at The Juilliard School was recognized with the 2023 Richard F. French Award and was the subject of a feature on Radio France. He is currently pursuing a PhD in Musicology at Stanford University.

As a cultural advocate, Simon organized acclaimed (Le Telegramme, Ouest France, Bretagne Actuelle) summer chamber music concerts in the Ille-et-Vilaine/Côtes-d’Armor regions of Brittany in collaboration with local communities and non-profits as a founder of Festival Daniou, between 2014 and 2018. His work has been profiled in print and broadcast by Choir & Organ magazine, Bretagne Actuelle, French Morning, and Tébéo. In addition to extensive undergraduate teaching, he was a longtime composition faculty member of the Music Advancement Program at The Juilliard School.

Simon received the 2017 Brian M. Israel Prize from the Society for New Music, a 2012 ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composers award, and was winner of the 2015 New Juilliard Ensemble commissioning competition.