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Narrator Profile

Simon Vance

Recording more than two dozen audiobooks this year, Simon picked up seven(!) Earphones Awards, including Wilbur Smith’s THE QUEST, Peter Carey’s THEFT, Anthony Trollope’s THE WARDEN, and Rob Gifford’s CHINA ROAD. --2007 Narrator Yearbook

"Ah. Simon Vance," Kate Fleming sighs. "What do I love about Simon Vance?" Kate has directed him in several audiobooks, including L.M. Boston's THE STONES OF GREEN KNOWE and Elizabeth Nunez's PROSPERO'S DAUGHTER. "Without resorting to vocal gymnastics," she says, "Simon is one of those narrators who can tap into a vast reserve of imagination to find the right feel for his characters."

Simon says PROSPERO'S DAUGHTER was an enjoyable challenge with it's "three distinct sections with different first person accounts of the same events--one a native of the Caribbean and another a young girl!" The British-born Audie winner "absolutely loves" recording audiobooks. "They're my mainstay," he says. Indeed, he has had to curtail what he calls "tramping the boards" on Bay Area stages lately because he is in such demand as a narrator. Working under the noms de guerre of Robert Whitfield and Richard Matthews, as well as his own, he has impersonated Jesus and Buddha in THE LOTUS AND THE CROSS, a whole pack of scheming Aussies in THEFT, Jesus again plus Oscar Wilde and Blaise Pascal in SENSE AND SENSUALITY, Yankee dissidents in THE WHISKEY REBELLION, and a cast of snobbish Brits in the comic A SPOT OF BOTHER, among many other dramatis personae.

AudioFile's reviewers have praised Simon's ability to capture "the listener's ear in the first few minutes," his "unique voice and vision for every character," and his "subtle intonation." His clarion baritone voice gives him a youthful sound, belying his 22 years as a narrator. He began his career in England by reading for the blind and delivering the news for BBC. He relocated to the U.S. so that his then-wife, an American, could be near her folks. "In the long run it was a good idea," he says. "I do love it here now." Remarried, he remains near San Francisco where his children live, recording in his own home studio or shuttling to Oregon, Seattle, or New York for various clients. "This has been a most enjoyable and successful audiobook year for me," he told us. "The other aspects of my acting career have taken a bit of a back seat, but I will never stop putting myself 'out there' given the chance. I'd like to work more in film." Ultimately, what he desires most in his professional life is "steady work and," he hastens to add, "the respect of my peers. Narrators are such a great bunch--Kate Fleming, Grover Gardner, Scott Brick . . . I could go on, it's a growing list--I feel honored to be considered in their company."--Yuri Rasovsky
- 2006 Narrators Yearbook

When Simon Vance was about 10 years old, his father gave him a tape recorder, and he’s been “playing with a microphone and making silly voices” ever since. Simon won the 2006 Audie Award for Science Fiction for Richard K. Morgan’s MARKET FORCES. “You venture into so many different worlds. From week to week you don’t know which planet you’re going to be on, which country you’re going to be in.” Simon began his audio career by reading audiobooks for the UK’s Royal National Institute for the Blind for 10 years before coming to the U.S. in 1992. Then, he began reading for Blackstone Audio (as Robert Whitfield) and Books on Tape (as Richard Matthews). Simon estimates he’s “closing in on 300” audiobooks. He just finished recording THE SECRET RIVER, an Orange Award winner by Kate Grenville. “It’s the story of a fellow and his family who are sent as convicts to New South Wales at the turn of the nineteenth century. It describes the first meetings between Aboriginals and whites in Australia. It’s a terribly moving book.” Among his other recent projects: THEFT by Peter Carey and the newest in Jasper Fforde’s “nursery crime” series, THE FOURTH BEAR.


Simon Vance

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Narrator Profiles:

A
Jenny Agutter
B
Josephine Bailey
Dylan Baker
Joe Barrett
Sean Barrett
Joyce Bean
Paul Boehmer
Katherine Borowitz
Dennis Boutsikaris
Humphrey Bower
Alyssa Bresnahan
Scott Brick
Blair Brown
C
Cassandra Campbell
Len Cariou
Barbara Caruso
David Case
Orlagh Cassidy
David Colacci
Ralph Cosham
Steven Crossley
D
Jim Dale
Cynthia Darlow
Jonathan Davis
Robertson Dean
Rupert Degas
Norman Dietz
Gerard Doyle
William Dufris
Bernadette Dunne
E
Susan Ericksen
F
Richard Ferrone
Peter Jay Fernandez
Anna Fields
Kate Fleming
Patricia R. Floyd
Mel Foster
G
Boyd Gaines
L.J. Ganser
Grover Gardner
Daniel Gerroll
Dion Graham
Holter Graham
Emily Gray
Adam Grupper
George Guidall
H
Anthony Heald
Edward Herrmann
Paul Hecht
Dick Hill
Kate Hood
William Hootkins
Stephen Hoye
I
Jennefer Ikeda
Judith Ivey
J
Derek Jacobi
Martin Jarvis
Neville Jason
Michael Jayston
Simon Jones
K
Garrison Keillor
Lorelei King
Michael Kramer
L
Jenna Lamia
Rosalyn Landor
Nick Landrum
Lisette Lecat
John Lee
Virginia Leishman
Anton Lesser
M
Carrington MacDuffie
Miriam Margolyes
Wanda McCaddon
Carolyn McCormick
John McDonough
Ron McLarty
Jennifer Mendenhall
Laural Merlington
Paul Michael
Robin Miles
Lizan Mitchell
Alfred Molina
Christina Moore
Cassandra Morris
Frank Muller
N
Jim Norton
O
Daniel Oreskes
P
Steven Pacey
Will Patton
Lisa Renee Pitts
Richard Poe
Davina Porter
Simon Prebble
R
Robert Ramirez
Lorna Raver
Kate Reading
Maggi-Meg Reed
Christian Rodska
Richard Rohan
Barbara Rosenblat
Stefan Rudnicki
Nelson Runger
S
Andrew Sachs
Campbell Scott
Alan Sklar
Tom Stechschulte
Jenny Sterlin
Nick Sullivan
T
Lynne Thigpen
Stephen Thorne
Suzanne Toren
Lorraine Toussaint
Nancy Travis
Patrick Tull
Anne Twomey
V
Jennifer Van Dyck
Simon Vance
W
Barrett Whitener
Jeff Woodman
Oliver Wyman
Y
Michael York

 


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