Simon Over studied at the Amsterdam Conservatoire and Royal Academy of Music and read music at Oxford University. From 1992 to 2002 Simon was a member of the music staff of Westminster Abbey, and Director of Music at both St Margaret's Church and the Chapel of St Mary Undercroft in the Palace of Westminster. He is the Founder-Conductor of the Parliament Choir and has conducted all the choir's performances, in conjunction with the City of London Sinfonia, La Serenissima, The London Festival Orchestra and Southbank Sinfonia.

Simon has been Director of Southbank Sinfonia since its formation in 2002 and has conducted over eighty of its concerts throughout the UK and Europe in concert halls as diverse as St George's, Windsor, St James's Palace, The Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, Westminster Abbey, a beer tent in Bury St Edmunds and a converted cowshed in Aberdeenshire.

In March 2006, Simon was invited to Hong Kong to conduct the City Chamber Orchestra. In April 2006, he was appointed Conductor of the Malcolm Sargent Festival Chorus. Other highlights of the year were the Memorial Concert for Sir Edward Heath in July and a cruise with the English Chamber Orchestra in September. In 2007 he will make a recording of Russian music with the cellist Raphael Wallfisch and Southbank Sinfonia.

He has worked with many internationally-acclaimed musicians, including Sir Thomas Allen, Ian Bostridge, Simon Keenlyside, Emma Kirkby, Dame Felicity Lott, Della Jones, Christopher Maltman, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Sir Willard White, Anthony Marwood, Alessio Bax, Malcolm Martineau, Emma Johnson and Sir James and Lady Galway. His performances with American violinist Miriam Kramer at the Wigmore Hall London and Lincoln Center, New York - as well as on several recordings - received high critical acclaim.

imon has been associated with the Samling Foundation in its work with young professional singers since its inception in 1996. He is Artistic Director of the Anghiari Festival in Tuscany.