Lisa Simeone, NPR Biography
Host, World of Opera
Lisa Simeone joined NPR's World of Opera as its host in July 2002. She has more than 25 years of hosting and news experience in television and radio, including at Weekend All Things Considered, Performance Today, Weekend Edition Sunday, and the Metropolitan Opera. She also hosts the nationally syndicated BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcast Series, and the internationally syndicated public radio documentary series Soundprint.
She has produced three documentaries for Soundprint: "Bachelor Party"; "Strippers: Thinly Veiled"; and "Money in the Family." For 13 seasons she hosted the nationally syndicated Baltimore Symphony Orchestra Casual Concerts with conductor David Zinman.
Simeone began her career at WBJC in Baltimore and WETA in Washington, D.C. During her ten years at Baltimore's WJHU, she developed a loyal following for her unusual mix of programming — classical, folk, and jazz, along with provocative reports and interviews on a wide variety of subjects, everything from anthropology to neuroscience to philosophy to media criticism. (But she confesses that her favorite reports are on things such as bocce, The Hon Man of Baltimore, and the virtues of a well-fitting bra!)
She also produced and hosted news and public affairs call-in programs. As a freelancer, she has done voice-overs, narrations, and hosting for the Discovery Channel, PBS, NPR, and commercial enterprises.
When she's not doing radio, Simeone writes articles for Style Magazine as well as book reviews and op-eds for the Baltimore Sun. And she spends a lot of time studying classical Latin.
Simeone was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John's College in Annapolis, Maryland (the "Great Books School") in 1980. In 1997, she earned an M.A. from the Writing Seminars at the Johns Hopkins University.
