The composer, conductor, pianist and repertory manager Ladislav Simon studied composition with Alois Haba (1944 - 48) at the Prague Conservatoire, and simultanously he studied piano with K. Jirankova (graduated in 1950). In the years 1950 - 54 he continued studying the piano with Frantisek Rauch at the Academy of Music and Performing Arts. Having won the competition of the then Musical and Artistic Centre, he was given a grant by this organization, which facilitated his further artistic development. At the same time, Simon became a teacher of piano, editor and repertory manager, first in the Czechoslovak Radio and then in Czechoslovak Television. Subsequently he was active as a visiting soloist of the Film Symphonic Orchestra, Chief of the orchestra of the Vinohrady Theatre (where, among other things, he started an electronic studio), and as the founder and chief of the chamber ensemble, Sonatori di Praga.
After a year\' s interruption at Ostrava, Simon returned to Prague and somewhat later, in 1970, founded and became the leader of the jazz orchestra as a part of the drama company of the National Theatre. At that time, Simon' s inclination towards jazz showed itself fully: the ensemble has been able to comply with all artistic tasks connected with the theatre as well as with the public concerts and his performances immediately captivated both the experts and the public. Simon succeeded in attracting a number of outstanding personalities (for example, the flutist and performer Jiri Stivin) and brought an unique character to the jazz performances. He also wrote a number of remarkable compositions and arrangements for this orchestra. Unfortunately for the development of Czechoslovak jazz, this period was short. Then Simon devoted himself to conducting and working as a program manager in the opera ensemble (from 1974) and later on in the ballet ensemble of the National Theatre (from 1977). Naturally his jazz orientation was put to use also here, particularly in the ballet Creation of the World by Andrej Petrov. Besides his work in the theatre and composing, Simon again started teaching at the Prague Conservatoire at this time.
In surveying Simon's compositions one cannot help feeling that the composer was gradually aiming at more expressive works. Many remarkable compositions, especially of a chamber character, appeared as early as in the Sixties. For a long time Simon was composing mainly music for plays most often at the National Theatre and the Vinohrady Theatre. Then he started working also for television and film (his is the signature tune of TV children's evening programme called Vecernicek). A significant point in the shaping of Simon' s musical development and original musical language was his meeting with jazz. In his words: "Jazz is one of the dialects of the musical languague of our century. Jazz is not a goal, it is a means . . . it is not meant to entertain, but to communicate . . . I do not write jazz. I am arguing with it. That is the reason why it lives in my music all the time. More or less... to understand jazz means to understand contemporary music as such, it means to understand the era in which we live."
Simon, for some time, intensively studied Musica Nova, but he is closely related also to the robustness of Janacek. The Simon's compositions of the seventies and eighties present interesting and strong synthesis of the expressive means used in contemporary classical music with stylized jazz elements. It is significant that this is a genuine synthesis and not a mere piling up of heterogeneous elements. These works include the Sonata for piano, Concerto for piano, Cesta for brass quintet, Perokresby for wind quintet, and the ballet Jennifer, completed in its original version in 1979, which has become the most widely acclaimed of all Simon' s works. Its final form is actually the third version, because the first two versions required an excessively complex stage apparatus. The first perfomance took place on May 7, 1987, and it was also included in the programme of the Prague Spring Festival 1987. In its conclusion, the work metaphorically expresses the basic idea which surprisingly was in perfect harmony with the aims of subsequent Czechoslovak November Revolution (The Velvet Revolution). His Requiem for Dead People, for Those To Whom Music Was Their Life was acclaimed both by critics and the audience at its second performace on the 7th of November 1993 in Rudolfinum (with soloists Lucie Bílá, baritonist Jess Webb, Kühn Children Choir and two big bands, cond. by Vladimír Válek).