Lisa Simeone
Host, World of Opera
Lisa Simeone joined NPR World of Opera as its host in July 2002. She has more than 25 years of experience in radio and television, including at All Things Considered, Performance Today, Weekend Edition and the Metropolitan Opera. She also hosts the nationally syndicated BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra Radio Broadcast Series, and the internationally syndicated 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, interviews, and call-in shows 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!).
As a freelancer, she has done voice-overs, narrations, and hosting for the Discovery Channel, PBS and commercial enterprises.
When she's not doing radio, Simeone writes articles for Style Magazine and the Urbanite, as well as book reviews and op-eds for the Baltimore Sun.
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.
