Simon Schmied (*1995, Biel/Bienne) is a Swiss conductor and violinist whose versatility spans professional orchestras, youth ensembles, and education. Raised in Nidau (Switzerland), he began violin at the Biel Music School at five and later added piano. He completed a Master’s in Music Pedagogy (violin with Adelina Oprean) at the Basel University of Music in 2018, performing regularly with Camerata Switzerland, the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra, and the Gstaad Festival Orchestra. From 2015 to 2020 he was concertmaster of the Swiss Youth Symphony Orchestra. Since 2020 he has taught violin at the Conservatory of Fribourg.

Turning to conducting, Simon Schmied earned his Master’s with distinction in 2022 under Clemens Heil at the Lucerne University of Music and continues to receive further inspiration from Johannes Schlaefli, Nicolás Pasquet, Daniele Gatti, Jaap van Zweden, Jorma Panula and Christoph-Mathias Mueller. He made his conducting debut at the KKL Lucerne in 2019 with the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz and has since worked with orchestras such as the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, Basel Chamber Orchestra, Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra, Bilbao Orkestra Sinfonikoa and the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra.

From the 2026/27 season, he serves as Chief Conductor of the Orchestre des Jeunes de Fribourg, with upcoming projects including collaborations with soloists such as Maximilian Hornung, Esther Hoppe and Thomas Demenga. Since 2020 he has served as Chief Conductor of the Bern Student Orchestra. In both roles, he is devoted to mentoring young musicians and overseeing their artistic development

In 2024 he was Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival for Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde with Jonas Kaufmann and Camilla Nylund. In addition, he conducted the Gstaad Festival Orchestra as part of the Gstaad Conducting Academy under the guidance of Jaap van Zweden and Johannes Schlaefli. In 2026, he served as Assistant Conductor to David Afkham for Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte at the Festival Internacional de Santander.

In 2026, he was a finalist at the Critical Orchestra Competition of the Forum Dirigieren in Germany. At the Concours de Genève, he was selected as a semi-finalist and will take part in the conducting competition in November 2026.

He currently continues his conducting studies with Nicolás Pasquet, Jordi Francés and Miguel Ángel Cañamero at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid, where Queen Sofía honoured him as the most outstanding conducting student.