Photo Credit: Todd Rosenberg
Simón Gómez Gallego. Percussionist. Timpanist. Educator.
November, 2023
Simón Gómez Gallego is an active percussionist, timpanist and teacher based in Chicago, IL. He holds positions as Principal Timpanist of the Illinois Philharmonic Orchestra, South Bend Symphony Orchestra and Rockford Symphony Orchestra and is a percussionist with the Chicago Philharmonic Society. As a teacher, he is the Percussion Ensemble Coach for the Chicago Youth Symphony Orchestras and is in the faculty of the Chicago Scholarship Program of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The People’s Music School. He also maintains a private studio on the north side of Chicago.
Simón has performed as Guest Principal Timpanist and Percussionist across North America with orchestras such as the Chicago, Milwaukee, Atlanta, Detroit, Indianapolis and Charlotte Symphony Orchestras as well as the Lyric Opera of Chicago, the Grant Park Orchestra and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra, among others. Highlights of performances in 2023 have included appearances as Guest Principal Timpanist in subscription concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and Canada’s National Arts Centre Orchestra.
Before establishing his base in Chicago, Simón held positions as Assistant Principal Percussionist of the Florida Grand Opera, Principal Percussionist of the Battle Creek Symphony (MI) and Rockford Symphony and Principal Timpanist of the West Michigan Symphony. Since moving to Chicago, Simón has also performed with many other orchestras around the Chicagoland area such as the Elgin Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Sinfonietta, Lake Forest Symphony, Oistrakh Symphony of Chicago, Madison Symphony, among others.
In addition to performing with orchestras, Simón also enjoys performing chamber music, new music and solo works. In the 2023 - 2024 season he will be reappearing with the Fulcrum Point New Music Project. As a percussion soloist, he was featured as a soloist with the Rockford Symphony Orchestra, performing James Macmillan’s percussion concerto, Veni Veni Emmanuel and co-commissioned a piece for horn and vibraphone by Chicago Composer Roger Zare.
Born in Medellin, Colombia, Simón started his musical studies at the Instituto Musical Diego Echavarria. He then received both his Bachelor’s degree and Master’s degree from the University of Miami and a Post-Master’s Certificate in Percussion Performance from DePaul University. He was a member of the Civic Orchestra of Chicago and Civic Fellow from 2014 to 2016. Additionally, he attended the Aspen Music Festival and School for 5 summers, was a recipient of the Charlie Owen Fellowship in 2011 and the American Academy of Conducting at Aspen Timpani Fellowship in 2012.
Simón is very passionate about teaching, coaching and sharing his knowledge on audition preparation. He has presented workshops and talks on audition preparation at places like DePaul University, the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, Orquesta Juvenil Carlos Chaves (Mexico), Universidad de Antioquia (Colombia) among others. His students have also been accepted to top conservatories and universities. His passion for coaching extends beyond music and during his free time, he can be found coaching tennis, one of his other passions, and running around Chicago’s Lake Front.
Simón’s main teachers and coaches are David Herbert, Matthew Strauss, Marc Damoulakis, Eric Millstein, Vadim Karpinos, Svet Stoyanov, Ney Rosauro, Ted Atkatz and Alexander Ziborov. Simón is endorsed by Sabian Cymbals, Ludwig - Musser Instruments and is a JG Percussion Young Artist.