Piedmont Wind Symphony Founder and Conductor Rob Simon to Step Down

This week, after 25 years on the podium, Piedmont Wind Symphony Founder and Conductor Rob Simon will lead the group for the last time.

The ensemble of twenty professional music educators and highly trained amateurs regularly performs challenging music for winds. They've also collaborated with internationally renowned artists including trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, and singers Al Jarreau and Dionne Warwick.  

In addition to leading the Wind Symphony, Simon has been President of Windsor Jewelers in Winston-Salem for nearly three decades. He says the demands of running the store's newly opened second location in Charlotte made him begin searching for a replacement conductor two years ago.

This season, Simon will pass the baton to former Associate Conductor with the Winston-Salem Symphony Matthew Troy. In addition to his role as new Principal Conductor of the Wind Symphony, Troy will continue his work as Oklahoma City Philharmonic Education Conductor.  

The Piedmont Wind Symphony's 25^th anniversary performance will feature holiday classics, the rock band America, and the first work Simon programmed for the Wind Symphony back in 1989: Percy Grainger's Lincolnshire Posey. 

A Concert with No Name: America with the Piedmont Wind Symphony begins Thursday night, December 11^th at 7:30 PM in the Lawrence Joel Coliseum.