Simon Sargon

 ( American Classical Composers ) 

After receiving a grant from the America-Israel Cultural Foundation in 1971, Sargon relocated to Jerusalem where he worked as the Head of the Voice and Opera Department at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance (formerly the Rubin Academy of Music) and served as a visiting lecturer at Hebrew University. He concertized throughout the country and was invited to give a solo piano recital at the Israel Museum.

In 1974, Sargon was appointed Director of Music at Temple Emanu-El in Dallas, Texas and began a 27-year tenure with one of the largest Reform Jewish congregations in America. His wide range of Jewish liturgical music includes two complete Friday evening services, a Sabbath morning service, and numerous solo and choral works. These pieces are well-known in synagogues and temples throughout the country. His direction brought the Temple Emanu-El Adult Choir to prominence in the larger Jewish community, touring extensively in the United States and Israel as well as to Jewish communities in Mexico City, Toronto, London, Dublin, Birmingham, Paris, Amsterdam, Vienna, Prague, and Budapest. The Choir premiered Sargon's work Elul Midnight - A Cantata of Penitence with the Dallas Symphony Orchestra in 1984 and was invited to present a concert at the U. S. Holocaust Museum in Washington, D. C. in 1996.

Sargon served as Composer-in-Residence and received commissions from leading temples throughout the country and, as emeritus at Temple Emanu-El, continued to consult and collaborate with cantors and other temple musicians on creative projects. He was a Fellow of the Center for Jewish Culture and Creativity and participated in the Center's First International Symposium held in Jerusalem in 1996. In 2003, the American Conference of Cantors made him an Honorary Member in recognition of his achievements and for "his outstanding contributions to Jewish Music and Jewish Life". In the fall of 2006, Sargon was one of ten composers selected from throughout the country to be a panelist and present his music at the "Lost Legacy Conference" in New York, an event sponsored by Hebrew Union College- Jewish Institute of Religion, School of Sacred Music, an event which explored the music of the past generation of Jewish liturgical composers.

Many of Sargon's Jewish-themed concert works have been performed widely at music festivals and in concert series in the U. S. and abroad, including venues such as the Pittsburgh Jewish Music Festival, Music of Remembrance (Seattle, WA) and the Los Angeles Jewish Symphony series. Artists of the Orchestre National de Bordeaux Aquitaine performed his works at a Holocaust remembrance program in the Grande Synagogue of Bordeaux, France. His work for solo clarinet and piano, KlezMuzik, has circled the globe and was featured on U. S. State Department tours of Africa and Asia where it was performed at the Central University of the Nationalities and the Contemporary Music Academy, both in Beijing and at the Shanghai Conservatory of Music in China, among other venues.

In 1984, Sargon joined the music faculty of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, as director of the Opera Theatre, and retired as professor emeritus of Composition in 2014. The Dallas Symphony Orchestra premiered three of his works to critical acclaim ( Elul Midnight; Symphony No. 1: Holocaust; Tapestries), and his instrumental and vocal works have been performed nationally and internationally. He was a regular feature on Dr. Karl Haas’s program "Adventures in Good Music".

In 2007, Sargon was in residence with the Northwest German Philharmonic in Hanover, where he supervised a recording of his orchestral work, Tapestries, to be broadcast throughout Germany and the European Union. The American Conference of Cantors paid tribute to Sargon at its 2008 national convention in San Francisco, California, with a concert of his works.

Sargon's special interest in creating works for young people is reflected in his many compositions for young musicians. In addition to a multitude of other works, A Voice Called was written for youth choir with narrations and musical settings of the poetry of Hannah Szenes, a hero of the Holocaust. It was written not just for performance in a Jewish setting but as a meaningful artistic vehicle for use in Holocaust awareness and education programs in schools and other venues.

The Dallas Symphony Orchestra featured Sargon's work, The Town Musicians of Bremen, at its opening concert of the 2009-2010 Family Concert Series. This work for narrator and orchestra was adapted by the composer from the story of The Brothers Grimm. Following its successful premiere at Tufts University in 2006, it has been performed to enthusiastic response in venues as diverse as the University of Missouri-Columbia's summer music festival (with the Missouri Contemporary Ballet); twice at Southern Methodist University (with the Meadows School of the Arts Division of Dance); and twice on young people's concerts at Music in the Mountains in Durango, Colorado (with the Pagosa Springs Youth Drama Group). The Dallas Symphony Orchestra's performance included the participation of the Dallas Black Dance Theater.

In 2018 to mark his 80th birthday, Southern Methodist University in Dallas presented a program of his vocal music, including individual songs and excerpts from song cycles, and in Washington, D.C. Temple Sinai gave a concert of his compositions that included 15 cantors, several instrumentalists, and 175 volunteer singers. In November 2021, Cantor Azi Schwartz and the Park Avenue Synagogue in New York City premiered Sargon's Azkara: A Jewish Requiem as part of "A Jewish Requiem: Music, Memory, and the Will to See"; a program commemorating Kristallnacht with the participation of intellectual and activist Bernard-Henri Lévy.

Asked by broadcaster Bruce Duffie in a 2006 interview, “Why have music at all?” Sargon said, “Music is one of the greatest, richest and most satisfying gifts that we as humans have on Earth. Without music, my life would be devoid of meaning. It would be bare and empty. I can’t imagine it.”