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The English conductor and former oboist, Paul Goodwin, studied at the City of London School and the Guildhall School of Music - oboe with Janet Craxton, composition and Music history at Nottingham University, then specialized in contemporary oboe techniques before moving to the Baroque oboe, and studying at the Vienna Hochschule für Musik Vienna with Jurg Schäftlein.
Paul Goodwin was for over a decade recognized as one of the worlds foremost early oboe specialists, playing all periods of music on historical oboes, and was principal oboist of The English Concert and The London Classical Players. He has made many solo and concerto records.
In 1996 Paul Goodwin made the decision to give up his oboe career and dedicate himself solely to conducting. He subsequently studied conducting in Helsinki with Jorma Panula, and took up posts with The Academy of Ancient Music (appointed as associate conductor by founder Christopher Hogwood), and the English Chamber Orchestra (principal guest conductor). His experience as an oboist has helped him to bring lyricism, phrasing, and architecture to his conducting.
Paul Goodwin has become one of Britain’s most versatile conductors, renowned for his historically informed interpretations of baroque, classical and romantic music, while also being a great advocate of contemporary music. He is one of the principal guest conductors of the Kammerorchester Basel, with whom he performs both on modern and period instruments in a wide range of repertoire from J.S. Bach to Dmitri Shostakovich and contemporary Swiss composers. He has recorded CD's of both Georg Frideric Handel’s Opera Lotario and the complete Riccardo Primo, and will be recording G.F. Handel's great English oratorio Athalia in 2009. He is also a regular guest conductor with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern and has recorded several discs, including one of Christmas music from Michael Praetorius to Benjamin Britten and another of Richard Strauss (Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme and Couperin suites). Others, shortly to be released, include orchestral music of Igor Stravinsky and a disc Amadeus Hartmann. Paul was the Principal Guest Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra for six years, collaborating with such artists as Kiri Te Kanawa, Joshua Bell, Maria-João Pires, Mstislav Rostropovich and Magdalena Kožená. He has also recorded CD's of Ami Beach and a highly acclaimed CD of Edward Elgar's Nursery Suite for Harmonia Mundi.
For many years he has worked closely with the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he has toured extensively and made recordings of Heinrich Schütz choral music, W.A. Mozart’s singspiel Zaide and two discs of music by John Tavener that he commissioned for the AAM. Three of these CD's have been nominated for Grammy (USA) and Gramophone (UK) awards. Subsequent AAM commissions were pieces by David Bedford, John Woolrich and, most recently, Thea Musgrave.
Paul Goodwin has a wide symphonic repertoire, conducting orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, Hallé Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In the USA he has conducted the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra (Washington), Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and in 2009 the Philadelphia Orchestra. In Europe, the Belgium and Spanish National Orchestras, Helsinki Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerischer Rundfunk Symphonieorchester, HR-Sinfonieorchester and NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover. His repertoire spans from Purcell and J.S. Bach to Johannes Brahms and Schumann, from Ravel, E. Elgar and I. Stravinsky, to Messiaen, Takemitsu and Maxwell Davies. In 2008-2009 he conducts a wide variety of repertoire with orchestras including the Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra, Lucerne Symphony, Malaysian and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne and Baselkammerorchester. He returns to the Orquesta Nacional de Espana and to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York for performances of the St Matthew Passion (BWV 244), and makes his debut with the Handel and Haydn Society in Boston.
In opera, Paul Goodwin's refreshing approach is in great demand. His recent successes have included Iphigenie en Tauride at the Komische Oper Berlin, Rape of Lucretia at the Teatro Real Madrid and Orlando at Opera Australia Past highlights include W.A. Mozart’s Figaro and Il Re Pastore at Opera North, Idomeneo in Graz, The Magic Flute at the Teatro Aalto in Essen, Monteverdi’s Incoronatione di Poppea in Athens, G.F. Handel’s Orlando at the Flanders Opera and Haydn’s Orfeo in Madrid. This season (2008-2009) he presents a combined programme of I. Stravinsky's Rake's Progess and Pulcinella Ballet with three singers and the Kammerorchester Basel, and tours Haydn's Orfeo in europe.
Paul Goodwin’s dedication to educational projects has led him to work with both the National Youth Orchestras of The Netherlands and Spain, the Britten-Pears Orchestra, the European Union Baroque Orchestra and with the orchestras of the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music, London, and the Royal Conservatoire in the Hague. He is a regular visiting conductor for the Queen Elisabeth Competition Brussels.
Paul Goodwin was awarded the Handel Honorary Prize of the City of Halle (Saale) in 2007 in recognition of his extraordinary services to performances of works by G.F. Handel. |
