Paul Goodwin

Widely esteemed in the 1990s as a leading period-instrument oboist, Paul Goodwin soon earned distinction as a conductor active across an unusually broad repertoire. His oboe discography exceeds twenty solo and recital albums and features frequent appearances with foremost London ensembles devoted to Baroque instruments. Among these releases stand a widely praised edition of Vivaldi oboe sonatas, a further set of seven Vivaldi concertos with oboe, and the oboe sonatas of Georg Philip Telemann.

Goodwin performed in major halls and festivals worldwide while maintaining a strong commitment to teaching and to projects involving student musicians. His conducting career advanced markedly after Christopher Hogwood, founder of the Academy of Ancient Music, named him associate conductor of that ensemble. He also demonstrated clear command of modern-instrument forces by becoming principal guest conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra. Guest engagements have taken him to orchestras of varying scale and instrumentation, among them the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Swedish Chamber Orchestra, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Orchestre National de Lille, the Ulster Orchestra, the Camerata Academica Salzburg, and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Equally at home in choral repertoire, he has directed the Belfast Philharmonic Choir, the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin, and the Tallis Chamber Choir, and has taken the Netherlands Chamber Choir on tour.

As an exclusive Harmonia Mundi USA artist, Goodwin has recorded extensively with the Academy of Ancient Music. Among their joint projects are tours centered on Monteverdi and Schütz as well as a staging of Mozart’s little-known Singspiel Zaïde. His BBC Proms debut occurred in 1999, when he led the academy in a program of Handel, Haydn, and John Tavener.

The European revival of Baroque opera has confirmed Goodwin’s effectiveness in the theater. He has conducted Jonathan Miller’s innovative production of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion together with Handel’s Agrippina, Amadigi, and Poro, Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, Gluck’s Orfeo, Haydn’s L’isola disabitata, and Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Il rè pastore.

Goodwin has actively encouraged contemporary composers to write for period instruments. The first result was John Tavener’s Eternity’s Sunrise, commissioned for the academy; Tavener subsequently composed the large-scale cantata Total Eclipse. David Bedford likewise agreed to compose an orchestral suite for the same ensemble.

Goodwin sustains a lively involvement with music education and youth ensembles. He regularly rehearses the Baroque and Classical orchestras of London’s Royal Academy of Music and Royal College of Music, serves as director of the Dartington International Summer School Baroque Orchestra and Early Opera, and has collaborated with the Spanish Youth Orchestra (JONDE), the Britten-Pears Orchestra, the European Community Baroque Orchestra, and the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique.