The great classical conductor's career has taken him all over the world. For almost two decades he was at the helm of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, he spent 16 years as the principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic and he was music director of London's Symphony Orchestra for six years, before he returned to Germany for his current post at Munich's Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Over a coffee on Hope Street, Sir Simon told ECHO: "It's a cliché but you feel like you've never left. Particularly in this area, it feels like being a teenager. He said: "There was a lot of music in the house growing up. My father had a professional jazz band at university, my mum used to run a record shop.
He said: "When I grew up was a time when schools were really starting to do that and there was more and more music in the schools in the years afterwards. Now, of course, it has fallen back again. Founded in 1951, the Merseyside Youth Orchestra was among the first of its kind and it has produced hordes of professional musicians. Sunday's concert will celebrate its 73 years, playing music by Mozart, Elgar, Bernstein and Shostakovich. Sir Simon is looking forward to reuniting with old friends on the stage.
Wishing that everyone has the chance to fall in love with classical music in the way he did, Sir Simon despairs at the news coming from Birmingham, where was music director at the city's symphony orchestra from 1980 to 1998. Birmingham City Council's dire financial situation means it has to make £300m worth of cuts over the next two years.
"I have the memory of both sides of the political divide in Birmingham coming to speak to me to say 'we'll fight like cats and dogs on everything, but you won't get a hair between us on building Symphony Hall, we're going to make it happen, whoever is in power'. "So, I spent all my years in the Berlin Philharmonic seeing Angela Merkel going to a football match in the afternoon and then a concert in the evening and loving both equally and knowing about both equally - this is not a problem.
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