Violinist Simone Porter has been recognized as an emerging artist of impassioned energy, interpretive integrity, and vibrant communication. She has debuted with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle and Pittsburgh Symphonies, and with a number of renowned conductors, including Stéphane Denève, Gustavo Dudamel, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Nicholas McGegan, Ludovic Morlot, Donald Runnicles, David Robertson, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Manfred Honeck, Louis Langrée, and David Danzmayr. Simone made her professional solo debut at age 10 with the Seattle Symphony and her international debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London at age 13. In March 2015, Simone was named a recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant.
Simone’s recent seasons include extensive U.S. touring with visits to orchestras such as the Colorado, North Carolina, St. Louis, Oregon, Nashville, Baltimore, Hawai’i, Grand Rapids, Arkansas, Omaha, Jacksonville, and Quebec Symphonies; Buffalo and Erie Philharmonics; the Florida Orchestra; and many more. The 2026–27 season features returns to the Virginia, Princeton, Eugene, Colorado, and Pasadena Symphonies and debuts with the Greensboro, Gonzaga, and Port Angeles Symphonies. She will also return to the Oregon Symphony, where she currently serves as Artist-in-Residence through the 2027–28 season.
Internationally, Simone has performed with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel; the Orquestra Sinfônica Brasileira in Rio de Janeiro; the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica; the City Chamber Orchestra of Hong Kong; the Sun Symphony in Vietnam; the Royal Northern Sinfonia; the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in the United Kingdom; Orquesta Clásica Santa Cecilia de la Fundación Excelentia in Madrid; the Opéra de Marseille; and at the Edinburgh Festival, performing Barber under the direction of Stéphane Denève.
An eager collaborator and chamber musician, Simone has appeared at festivals such as La Jolla SummerFest, Seattle Chamber Music Society, Bay Chamber Music, Moab Music Festival, Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and many more. She recently collaborated with Third Coast Percussion at Swarthmore College and 92NY and will collaborate this season with violinist Blake Pouliot and pianist Hsin-I Huang for performances at Stanford and Northridge, California.
Simone previously led a side-by-side project with New Century Chamber Orchestra and students of the San Francisco Conservatory, presented in San Francisco and at Stanford Live. Recent recital highlights include a tour in Spain with pianist Pallavi Mahidhara and debuts at the Celebrity Series in Boston, 92NY, and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. This season, Simone will make her recital debut with Pallavi Mahidhara at the Morelia International Music Festival.
February 2025 marked the release of Simone’s highly acclaimed first solo album, ad tendo, on the Bright Shiny Things label, featuring pieces by Esa-Pekka Salonen, Reena Esmail, Andrew Norman, Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber, and Hildegard von Bingen. Her album received a five-star review from BBC Music Magazine and was later nominated for the magazine’s 2026 Newcomer Award.
At the invitation of Salonen, Simone performed his work Lachen verlernt (“Laughing Unlearnt”) at the New York Philharmonic’s “Foreign Bodies,” a multisensory celebration of the work of the composer and conductor. Simone made her Carnegie Zankel Hall debut on the Emmy Award-winning TV show From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall, followed in November 2016 by her debut in Stern Auditorium. She returned to Carnegie in December 2024 together with cellist Joshua Roman as part of their Well-Being Concert. In June 2016, her featured performance of music from Schindler’s List with Maestro Gustavo Dudamel and members of the American Youth Symphony was broadcast nationally on the TNT Network as part of the American Film Institute’s Lifetime Achievement Award: A Tribute to John Williams.
Raised in Seattle, Washington, Simone studied with Margaret Pressley as a recipient of the Dorothy Richard Starling Scholarship and then attended the Colburn Conservatory of Music in Los Angeles in the studio of Robert Lipsett.
Simone Porter performs on a 1740 Carlo Bergonzi violin made in Cremona, Italy, on generous loan from The Master’s University, Santa Clarita, California.