Eric Simon manuscripts collection

Eric Simon, a clarinetist, composer, teacher, and conductor, was born in Vienna, Austria in 1907. Simon began playing piano at the age of 8, and started studying the clarinet at age 14 with Victor Polatschek, principal clarinetist of the Vienna Philharmonic, as his teacher. As a performer, he played with a variety of orchestras and conductors such as Leonard Bernstein and Leopold Stokowski with the New York City Symphony, Pablo Casals with the Prades Festival Orchestra in France, the Vienna State Opera under Clemens Krauss, and the Moscow Philharmonic. Simon also performed “Pierrot Lunaire” with Arnold Schoenberg, and alongside Bela Bartok in a performance of Bartok’s piece “Contrasts” for violin, clarinet, and piano for the International Society for Contemporary Music.

Simon immigrated to the United States in 1938. While in New York, he taught at the Mannes College of Music and the New School. From 1940 to 1941, Benny Goodman received private lessons from Simon through producer John Hammond’s referral. In 1944, Simon toured with the production of “Porgy and Bess,” before moving to Sherman, Connecticut in 1949 where he lived until his death in 1994. Simon arranged pieces for clarinet, as well as composed organ pieces and music for New Milford, Connecticut’s First Congregational Church.