Paul Goodwin

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 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.

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 Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf paired with Paddington Bear, and “Underneath the Stars” with violinist Charlie Siem.