Animated, flowing, compact, transparent, engaging and committed.
Le Nazione, Italy
Animated, flowing, compact, transparent, engaging and committed.
Le Nazione, Italy
CONDUCTOR
"One of the most versatile conductors of our time."
Hessische Zeitung, Germany
Paul Goodwin is renowned for his historically informed interpretations of music of all periods, his wide repertoire and his interest in contemporary music. He has a great passion for incorporating period style within the traditional orchestral world and creating unusual and dynamic programs. He was for 11 years Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival in California, 6 years as Principal Guest Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra, 13 years as Associate Conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music and at present is Principal Guest Conductor of Capella Aquileia in Germany and Director of the Historical Performance Programme at the Escuela Superior de Musica Reina Sofia in Madrid.
Paul has a wide symphonic repertoire conducting orchestras throughout the world, such as the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony, Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Scottish Chamber Orchestra in the UK; the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra Washington, Seattle Symphony, Utah Symphony, Baltimore Symphony and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra in the US; the Belgium National, Spainish National, Taiwan National, Hungarian National Opera, Mexican and Polish National Orchestras, the Rotterdam, Helsinki, Auckland, Melbourne, Seoul and Royal Stockholm Philharmonics and the Bayerischer Rundfunk, SWR (Saabrucken), NDR (Hannover), MDR (Leipzig), WDR (Cologne) Rundfunkorchesters along with the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig.
In opera, Paul’s successes have included Cosi fan Tutte at the Royal Danish Opera, Copenhagen, Gluck Iphigenie en Tauride at the Komische Oper Berlin, Britten Rape of Lucretia at the Teatro Real Madrid, Handel's Jeptha at Welsh National Opera and Orlando at both Scottish Opera and Opera Australia. In Carmel USA he has conducted Mozart’s Idomeneo, Magic Flute, Cosi fan Tutti, Purcell Dido and Aeneas, Stravinsky The Rake's Progress and Bernstein's Trouble in Tahiti.
In the 2024 - 25 season Paul is conducting the Polish National Orchestra (Mendelssohn Lobgesang and Whitacre "Cloud Burst"), the Warsaw Chamber Opera, the National Symphony and Jalisco Philharmonic in Mexico, the Graz Styriate Festival Orchestra in Austria, the Rheinische Philharmonic in Beethoven, Mozart and Mendelssohn, George Enescu's oratorio "Vox Maris" in Bucharest Romania, a contemporary music program with the Cyprus Symphony Orchestra, Handel's opera Alcina in Mainz, the National Youth Orchestra of Israel in Elgar Enigma Variations, the Reina Sofia Camerata in Madrid, a baroque program with the Valencia Chamber Orchestra and the wonderful Haydn 7 last words on the cross in Murcia, Spain.
During his years as Associate Conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music he recorded discs of Schutz choral music, Mozart’s singspiel Zaide and two discs of music that he commissioned from the composer John Tavener. Two of the Tavener CDs, (Eternity's Sunrise & Total Eclipse), were nominated for Grammy Awards and Mozart's opera Zaide for a Gramophone award. While he was Principal Guest Conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra he collaborated with artists such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Joshua Bell, Maria João Pires, Mstislav Rostropovich and Magdalena Kozena and recorded a highly acclaimed CD of Elgar's Nursery Suite for Harmonia Mundi. He has also recorded CDs of Richard Strauss and Amadeus Hartmann with the SWR Orchestra, Handel’s operas Lotario, Riccardo Primo and Athalia with the Basel Chamber Orchestra, two discs for Sony, one of Prokovief Peter and the Wolf paired with Paddington Bear, and "Underneath the stars” with violinist Charlie Siem.
Paul has a strong following on Spotify with his most popular track : Sospiri Op.70 by Edward Elgar listened to over 13 million times. There are at present 23 of his albums available to listen to on Spotify.com/albums/paulgoodwin
In 2007, Paul Goodwin was awarded the Handel Honorary Prize of the City of Halle (Saale) in recognition of his extraordinary services to performances of works by George Frederic Handel.
In 2021, a Music Fellowship was set up in honour of Paul Goodwin's 11 years tenure at the Carmel Bach Festival, in collaboration with CSUMB (California State University Monterey Bay).
In 2022, presented by Queen Sofia of Spain, he received the Plaque of the Reina Sofia School of Music as Professor of the Historical Performance Practice Programme.
