John Simon (composer)

His opposition to apartheid led him to compose a series of orchestral works that were a response to the events of the time, including the death in custody of Steve Biko.

A later 'struggle' piece was the symphonic suite Children of the Sun (Los Hijos del Sol), a musical depiction of key aspects of the conquest of the Incan Empire by the Spanish.

[2] Threnody 2 has been widely performed and broadcast, inter alia at the Edinburgh International Festival and the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama in Glasgow.

He orchestrated the cantata Zizi Lethu (Our Hope) by KwaZulu-Natal composer Phelelani Mnomiya, written to celebrate ten years of South African democracy (2004).

More recent works include A Peal of Bells for D. B. Cooper for strings, tubular bells and celesta; a symphonic suite around the Tristan legend, entitled Fanfares for Tristan, which includes quotations from Wagner's opera; and an anti-war 12-note composition entitled A Cry from a World Aflame for strings, trumpets and percussion (premiered by the BBC Philharmonic).

Other poets whose words he has set include Byron, Shelley, John Masefield, Wilfred Owen, Gerard Manley Hopkins and Matthew Arnold.