Simon Healy presents and produces Opera in Performance on Sunday nights at 7.05, as well as In Performance at 8.00 and Up Late at 10.30 every Monday to Thursday night. He takes great pleasure in choosing the music himself for Up Late. Simon also selects and post-produces the wealth of recent overseas concert and opera recordings heard in the evenings, which are made available to ABC Classic FM through the European Broadcasting Union. In his spare moments, he can also be heard presenting the occasional direct broadcast and speaking with musicians.

For many years, Simon presented Young Australia, a program which showcased the best of the country's youthful musicians and singers. He's been a tutor in the Words About Music program at six of the Australian Youth Orchestra's National Music Camps and thoroughly enjoys presiding over the huge direct broadcasts from this inspiring annual event.

Simon won the 1988 Australian Hi-Fi Award for his series, The Skill of Musick; an examination of the modern revival of early music and historical performance practice. He occasionally produces feature programs about different aspects of music, such as his series The Myths of Opera and Words for Music. He also lends his voice to concerts that combine the spoken word and music, such as his narration of Haydn's Seven Last Words with the Australian String Quartet at the 1998 Adelaide Festival.

In addition to Simon's passion for music, he holds a first-class honours degree in English Literature from Flinders University where he received the Flaxman Prize and was University Medallist in Humanities. He's also the proud father of two energetic and musical daughters.

Listen to the most recent Up Late programs