Simon Holt has been the Music Director of Cappella Cantorum since 2017. As well as conducting numerous oratorios with Cappella Cantorum and other choral groups, he is also an experienced conductor of opera. As the founder of Salt Marsh Opera in Stonington, CT, he has been the company’s Music Director since its inception in 2000, becoming Artistic Director and General Manager in 2005.

A graduate of The Royal College of Music, London, and Goldsmith’s College, University of London, Simon was a prizewinner at The Royal College of Organists also in London. His credentials include four diplomas, two in performance and two in teaching.

While in the United Kingdom, Simon was Director of Music at Bristol Cathedral School, the Bristol Cathedral School Choral Society, Bromsgrove Choral Society and the Birmingham University Chorus and Orchestra, with venues including Bristol Cathedral, Birmingham’s Symphony Hall and The Royal Albert Hall in London.

As an organist, Simon has performed in Westminster Abbey, York Minster, Selby Abby, St. George’s Chapel Windsor Castle, Reading Town Hall and the Cathedrals of Norwich, Carlisle, Portsmouth, Wells, Canterbury, Rochester and Gloucester. Simon has toured extensively in Europe performing at St. Mark’s in Venice, Sacré Coeur and Notre Dame in Paris, and venues in Holland, Austria, Germany, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Switzerland. He has appeared several times on British and American radio and television.

In 1999 Simon and his family moved to Stonington, CT where he became Director of Music and Organist at Calvary Church. In 2000 he founded and served as Executive Director of Calvary Music School until 2011. He was also Director of Music in School at the renowned Saint Thomas Choir School in New York City. Simon is currently the Director of Music at the First Congregational Church of Old Lyme, CT and Director of The Anglican Singers, artists-in-residence at St. James Church, New London, CT. When not making music, Simon is Executive Director of Washington Art Association & Gallery in Washington Depot, CT.