“Conducting in Sydney will always mean more to me than just giving another performance,” says Sydney Symphony Orchestra’s new Chief Conductor Simone Young.

“It’s home for me, so the experience will always be more intense. Hopefully that communicates into what the orchestra and audience experience.”

Over more than three decades of living and working overseas, the Sydney-born conductor, who studied piano and composition at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music, has brought an intensity and integrity to her performances which has led to her being highly in demand internationally. Between 2005 and 2015, she was Artistic Director of the Hamburg State Opera and Chief Music Director of the Hamburg Philharmonic, and has held a number of other titled positions. Currently, she works with many of the world’s leading orchestras and opera companies, including the Berlin Philharmonic and the Metropolitan Opera in New York. “I’m in a very privileged position now where it doesn’t take long for me to establish what kind of repertoire I want to be performing because I do have a certain profile as an international artist,” says Simone, speaking to us from Zürich where she was halfway through the run of a new production of Salome with Zürich Opera. “People don’t hire me to do, say, a Gluck chamber orchestra piece, but if they think of Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Wagner or Beethoven, the big Germanic repertoire, I’m one of the names that comes to the fore.”

In all the years that she has lived overseas, the Sydney Symphony has welcomed her back to Australia annually. Throughout her long-standing association with the Orchestra, she has been “working with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra on and off over the last quarter century – which sounds a little terrifying! I studied with some of the musicians in the orchestra; it’s just an incredibly comfortable and productive relationship, which says to me that it’s time – and I hate the expression – to take the relationship to the next level.” And so, starting in 2022, instead of coming out for the usual two weeks a year, she will be here for eight.

Knowing the Sydney Symphony Orchestra so well over many years, she notes that “a symphony orchestra often reflects the nature of its city, and this is a very stylish orchestra that excels in a tremendous breadth of repertoire, has a lot of heart, and is not afraid of showing its emotions.”

She’s excited, she says, at the possibilities of her new position, which coincides with the reopening of the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall. “The first year of a Chief Conductor is important, because you want to establish some ‘lines’ that you’re going to continue with during your period with the orchestra. An audience likes being able to follow what we’re doing.” For the Manly-raised conductor, that includes exploring Mahler symphonies, “starting with the Resurrection, which is a given when you’re reopening a refurbished Concert Hall.” Mahler’s second symphony, the Resurrection, is a piece she’s particularly attached to. “The first time I heard it live was when Stuart Challender conducted the Sydney Symphony in the Sydney Town Hall – he was one of the most influential people in my life and, I think, in the musical life of Sydney.” (Before Simone, Challender and Sir Charles Mackerras were the only Australians to have held the Chief Conductor role in the Sydney Symphony’s 90-year history).

In the mix for 2022 is another piece that’s meaningful to her – Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 6, which was on the program of the first symphony concert she attended at the Opera House, aged 12, with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic. “The whole thing, the sound, the music was so mind-blowing… I felt we had to play Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony for the reopening of the Concert Hall.”

Included in the “lines” that she aims to establish over her tenure are collaborations with Indigenous artists. “I hate any kind of tokenism, but artistically, I think we have a responsibility to hold a mirror up to society.” The first notes to be performed by the Sydney Symphony in the reopened Concert Hall in July will be by First Nations composer William Barton. “We commissioned him to write something about creation to go with the Resurrection,” she says. “I think that’s really important.”

Collaboration in general is something Simone’s passionate about and wants to develop both for creative reasons and to foster new audiences. “The inspiration that can happen between artists from different disciplines and different backgrounds can be incredibly fruitful.” First up is Mendelssohn’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in which the Sydney Symphony joins forces with Belvoir Theatre and Artistic Director Eamon Flack who will direct and adapt the play for this performance. “Both Belvoir and the Orchestra hope that our respective audiences are going to come to those programs – hopefully they will be confident enough to come back again.”

To close each year, the world-renowned artist is aiming to establish an opera in concert as part of the regular Sydney calendar – “It’s very close to my heart – I spend at least half my year conducting opera.” In November, Sydney audiences can catch the reimagined Fidelio by Beethoven, which will include text by First Nations author and academic Tyson Yunkaporta. Always an avid reader, Simone came across him through his book Sand Talk. “He has a completely unique voice – timeless but also very contemporary,” she says. “When I was looking for an author for Fidelio, he was a really easy choice.”

At the end of the year, too, the spotlight is turned away from the Orchestra and into the body of the hall with the People’s Choice concert. “It gives an opportunity to find out what our audience really wants to hear from us, and we’ll throw in some suggestions of works that people might be unfamiliar with but may be curious about.”

During her tenure in Hamburg, Simone trialled the idea to great success. “One of the tricks is we don’t publish the program, it’s a surprise – when you get into the hall is when you find out what we’re playing. It’s very exciting – we had a tremendous response to it in Hamburg and I think Sydney audiences will really get behind it.”