Paul Goodwin

Paul Goodwin is an English conductor, and former oboist.

As an oboist he studied oboe with Janet Craxton and, following his graduation from Nottingham University with a degree in composition, specialized in contemporary oboe techniques and the baroque oboe at The Guildhall School of Music and Drama in London. He continued his studies in Vienna with Jurg Schäftlein.

Goodwin was 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 he 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 (associate conductor), and the English Chamber Orchestra (principal guest conductor).

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 works closely with the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he has toured extensively and made recordings of Schutz choral music, Mozart’s singspiel Zaide and two discs of music by John Tavener he commissioned for the AAM. Three of these CDs 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 is one of the principal guest conductors with the Kammerorchester Basel, with whom he performs both on modern and period instruments in a wide range of repertoire from JS Bach to Mark Anthony Turnage. He has recorded CDs of both Handel’s Opera Lotario and the complete Riccardo Primo, and will be recording Handel's great English oratorio Athalia in 2009. He is also a regular guest conductor with the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrucken Kaiserslautern and has recorded four discs: one of Christmas music from Praetorius to Britten and another of Richard Strauss. 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 Kozena. He has also recorded CDs of Ami Beach and a highly acclaimed CD of Elgar's Nursery Suite for Harmonia Mundi.

Paul has a wide symphonic repertoire, conducting orchestras including the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. In the US he has conducted the Minnesota Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington, and in 2009 the Philadelphia Orchestra, and in Europe, the Belgium and Spanish National Orchestras, Helsinki and Royal Stockholm Philharmonics and the Bayerischer, Hessischer and NDR Hannover Rundfunkorchesters. His repertoire spans from Purcell and Bach to Brahms and Schumann, from Ravel, Elgar and Stravinsky, to Messiaen, Takemitsu and Maxwell Davies. In 2008/2009 he conducts a wide variety of repertoire with orchestras including the Philharmonia Baroque, Lucerne Symphony, Malaysian and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Lausanne and Baselkammerorchesters. He returns to the Orquesta Nacional de Espana and to the Brooklyn Academy of Music, New York for performances of the St Matthew Passion.

In opera, Paul’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 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, Handel’s Orlando at the Flanders Opera and Haydn’s Orfeo in Madrid.

Paul’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. Paul Goodwin 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 George Frederic Handel.

More information and sound clips can be heard on his web site : www.paulgoodwinconductor.com

He should not be confused with the Tuba player Paul J Goodwin of similar age and from the same area of South London.