Simon Wills (musician)
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Simon Wills (born 1957) is an eminent freelance trombonist conductor and composer based in London. He is a highly experienced orchestral, chamber and solo performer, on tenor trombone, alto trombone and sackbut. He has held the positions of Principal Trombone with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (1983-1997) and 2nd trombone with the London Symphony Orchestra.
May 2006 saw the première of his full length opera 'The Secret Agent' after the novella by Joseph Conrad at the Feldkirch Festival in Austria. The reception was enthusiastic; one reviewer called the composer "ein musikalische Tausendsassa". He is now working on a large-scale oratorio. His previous compositions include the large choral piece 'Die Brücke am Tay', the music theatre piece 'A Day Close to Summer' and a large amount of TV and film music.
In 2004 he premièred 'Judas Mercator' for solo trombone by Peter Maxwell Davies.
He is a scholar of 19th century style, contributed chapters on brass in the modern orchestra and contemporary brass music to the Cambridge Companion to Brass Instruments (CUP 1997) and spoke at Historic Brass Society conferences in London and Paris.
Simon is also Professor of Trombone at the Guildhall School of Music.
