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, Jaap van Zweden, Jorma Panula and Christoph-Mathias Mueller. He debuted at the KKL Lucerne in 2019 with the Junge Philharmonie Zentralschweiz and has since worked with the Gstaad Festival Orchestra, Festival Strings Lucerne, Málaga Camerata, Basel Chamber Orchestra and Allegra Festival Orchestra.

Since 2020 he has served as Music Director of the Bern Student Orchestra (BESTO), where—despite his young age—he is devoted to mentoring youth musicians and overseeing their artistic development. Upcoming projects in the 2025/26 season include concerts with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre des Jeunes de Fribourg

In 2024 he was Assistant Conductor to Sir Mark Elder at the Gstaad Menuhin Festival for Wagner‘s Tristan und Isolde. 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. He currently continues his conducting studies with Nicolás Pasquet, Jordi Francés and Miguel Ángel Cañamero at the Reina Sofía School of Music in Madrid and is a conducting candidate at the Concours de Genève 2025–26.