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Official programme/publicity Biography (from June 2008)
Roy
Goodman is Principal Guest Conductor of the Auckland Philharmonia New
Zealand, the English Chamber Orchestra, and (since taking over in December
2003 from Charles de Wolff) Conductor of the Bachkoor Holland accompanied
by the Royal Concertgebouw Kamerorkest. He has worked as guest conductor
with 120 orchestras and opera companies worldwide
[please visit: www.roygoodman.com].
Goodman is well known for his work as director and founder
of the Brandenburg Consort (1975-2001), as co-director/founder of The
Parley of Instruments (1978-1986), co-founder of the London Handel Orchestra
(in 1981), Principal Conductor of the Hanover Band (1986-1994), Music
Director for fifteen years of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (1989-2004),
Principal Conductor of the Händel Festspiele at the Badisches Staatstheater
in Karlsruhe (1990-1998), the first Principal Conductor of Umeå Symphony
Orchestra & Norrlands Opera Sweden (1995-2001), Music Director of
the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg (1999-2005) and as the first
Principal Conductor of Holland Symfonia (2003-2006). Goodman is very much
a disciple and colleague of Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Roger Norrington
- and in just a couple of years he will be 60.
Born in January 1951, Roy Goodman achieved international fame as a chorister
with the choir of King’s College Cambridge - as the 'high C' soloist
in Allegri’s Miserere (Decca 1963). Already in 1970 he
became a Fellow of the Royal College of Organists, and completed his violin
studies with both a performer's and a teacher's diploma. After six years
as a High School music teacher, from 1977 Goodman worked primarily in
Europe as a principal violinist - playing as concertmaster or soloist
with Ashkenazy, Brüggen, Ivan Fischer, Gardiner, Herreweghe, Hickox,
Hogwood, Koopman, Mackerras, Marriner, Norrington, Pinnock, Rattle and
Schreier. Goodman was the first concertmaster of the Orchestra of the
Age of Enlightenment, and during the 1980's he conducted for CD with the
Hanover Band the first ever performances on historic instruments of the
complete symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Weber, as well
as 14 symphonies by Mendelssohn and 60 symphonies by Haydn. In addition
to directing more than forty world premières of contemporary music
- many from the 21st century - he has conducted over 120 CDs (several
receiving rosettes in the Penguin CD Guide and top listings for
Corelli, Boyce, Handel & Haydn in Cassell's '1001 Classical Recordings
You Must Hear Before You Die') ranging from Monteverdi's
sacred vocal music to Holst's Planets, including further orchestral, vocal
and choral works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, Berwald, Copland, Barber, Walton
and Jeths, and major baroque works by Corelli, Purcell, Bach, Handel and
Rameau. His CD recordings of the complete Schumann symphonies for BMG/RCA
Red Seal (Abbey Road 1993) received unanimous and outstanding critical
praise worldwide.
An invitation to conduct a televised Sibelius' birthday
programme with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1993 was the catalyst
for Goodman's flourishing career as a serious international conductor.
In 2006 he made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam
and returned to San Francisco Opera to conduct a new production of Mozart’s
Figaro. Concerts in 2007-9 include the Hallé in Manchester,
RSNO in Glasgow and Residentie Orchestra in the Hague, WDR Cologne, NDR
Hannover and SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestras, Recreation Graz
and Kristiansand Symphony, Tampere and Bergen Philharmonics, Ulster Orchestra
in Belfast, the English, Geneva, Manitoba, Uppsala and Swedish Chamber
Orchestras, Grand Teton Festival Orchestra Wyoming, Western Australia
Symphony Orchestra in Perth and Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand.
Roy Goodman is an honorary Doctor of Music (University of Hull) and an
honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Music (London) - he has three
children and four grandchildren.
ROY GOODMAN – further information (from June 2008)
Roy Goodman is Principal Guest Conductor of the Auckland Philharmonia, New Zealand, the English Chamber Orchestra, and (since taking over in December 2003 from Charles de Wolff) Conductor of the Bachkoor Holland accompanied by the Royal Concertgebouw Kamerorkest. He is well known for his work as director and founder of the Brandenburg Consort (1975-2001), as co-director/founder (with Peter Holman) of The Parley of Instruments (1978-1986), co-founder (with Denys Darlow) of the London Handel Orchestra (in 1981), Principal Conductor of the Hanover Band (1986-1994), Music Director for fifteen years of the European Union Baroque Orchestra (1989-2004), the first Principal Conductor of Umeå Symphony Orchestra & Norrlands Opera Sweden (1995-2001), Music Director of the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra in Winnipeg (1999-2005) and as the first Principal Conductor of Holland Symfonia (2003-2006).
Roy Goodman is very much a disciple and colleague of
Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Roger Norrington - and in just a couple
of years he will be 60. In 2006 he made his debut with the Royal Concertgebouw
Orchestra, Amsterdam. Concerts in 2007/8 include the Hallé in Manchester,
RSNO in Glasgow and Residentie Orchestra in the Hague, NDR Hannover and
SWR Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestras, Recreation Graz and Kristiansand
Symphony, Tampere and Bergen Philharmonics, the Geneva, Manitoba, Uppsala
and Swedish Chamber Orchestras, and Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand.
In 1959 (at the age of eight) Goodman made his first recording for Decca
as boy-treble with the choir of Kings College Cambridge under Sir David
Willcocks, in Bach’s St. John Passion (with Peter Pears as Evangelist).
A few years later he achieved international fame as the soloist in Allegri’s
Miserere (now reissued, from 1963, on Decca Legends).
His mother’s godfather was Sir Malcolm Sargent whom he observed
conducting at the Proms in the mid 1960’s. When Goodman completed
his studies at the Royal College of Music in London in 1970 he was already
well qualified as a conductor, teacher, organist, violinist and musicologist.
He is an honorary Doctor of Music (University of Hull), Fellow of the
Royal College of Organists and Fellow of the Royal College of Music (London).
From 1971 he spent several years as a High School music teacher, eventually
as Director of Music at the University of Kent in Canterbury and as Director
of Early Music Studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. From 1975-1986
much of Goodman’s career was spent as a violinist - Goodman worked
in Europe as a principal violinist - playing as concertmaster or soloist
with Ashkenazy, Brüggen, Ivan Fischer, Gardiner, Herreweghe, Hickox,
Hogwood, Rene Jacobs, King, Koopman, Mackerras, Marriner, McCreesh, Norrington,
Pinnock, Rattle and Schreier. He was the first concertmaster of the Orchestra
of the Age of Enlightenment, and during the 1980's he conducted for CD
with the Hanover Band the first ever performances on historic instruments
of the complete symphonies by Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann and Weber,
as well as 14 symphonies by Mendelssohn and 60 symphonies by Haydn. In
addition to directing more than forty world premières of contemporary
music - many from the 21st century - he has conducted over 120 CDs (several
receiving rosettes in the Penguin CD Guide and top listings for
Corelli, Boyce, Handel & Haydn in Cassell's '1001 Classical Recordings
You Must Hear Before You Die') ranging from Monteverdi's
sacred vocal music to Holst's Planets (played on historical instruments),
including further orchestral, vocal and choral works by Mozart, Mendelssohn,
Berwald, Copland, Barber, Walton and Jeths, and major baroque works by
Corelli, Purcell, Bach, Handel and Rameau. His CD recordings of the complete
Schumann symphonies for BMG/RCA Red Seal (Abbey Road 1993) received unanimous
and outstanding critical praise worldwide.
An invitation to conduct a televised Sibelius' birthday programme with
the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra in 1993 was the catalyst for Roy
Goodman’s flourishing career as a serious international conductor.
Recent CD releases include recordings of Mozart’s basset clarinet
concerto with Nicholas Cox and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic for ‘RLPO
Live’, a CD for Naxos of classical trumpet concertos including Haydn
and Hummel (with Niklas Eklund and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra), and
recordings of Walton, Grace Williams, Gareth Walters & Warlock with
the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra for CBC Records. Also further CDs for Naxos
(orchestral suites by Rameau with the European Union Baroque Orchestra),
CBC Records (Barber Knoxville, Summer of 1915, Copland Eight
Songs of Emily Dickinson and songs by Gershwin with Measha Brüggergosman)
and Northwest Classics (Willem Jeths' Cello Concerto Falsa/Ficta
with Frances-Marie Uitti and the Arnhem Philharmonic)
Goodman has worked as guest conductor with 120 orchestras and opera companies
worldwide.
Opera work has included repertoire by Händel (Agrippina,
Alcina, Amadigi, Ezio, Giulio Cesare,
Orlando, Rodelinda, Scipione, Tamerlano),
Mozart (Bastien et Bastienne, Don Giovanni, La Clemenza
di Tito, Le nozze di Figaro) and Beethoven (Leonore)
in Lisbon, at the Britten-Pears School in Snape, Fondation Royaumont in
Paris and at Opera North in Leeds, Opera Northern Ireland in Belfast,
Flanders Opera in Gent and Antwerp, Staatstheater Mainz and as an annual
guest from 1990-1998 at the Badisches Staatstheater Händel Festspiele
in Karlsruhe. In 1999 he made his debut at the English National Opera
with Gluck’s Orpheus and at the Drottningholm Theatre Stockholm
with the world première of a new Swedish opera Trädgården
by Jonas Forssell. In 2001 he returned to Drottningholm for a new production
of Handel's Giulio Cesare, and in 2002 conducted Alcina
for Stuttgart, Budapest and San Francisco Opera. He returned to Stuttgart
in 2004 (Figaro) and also to San Francisco in 2005 & 2006
(Rodelinda & Figaro).
Some of Goodman’s more unusual engagements include making a documentary
film about Mozart’s Prague Symphony for Dutch television with members
of the Prague Chamber Orchestra; a 12 CD recording contract with BMG Classics/RCA
Victor after a concert cycle of the complete symphonies of Beethoven in
the Schleswig Holstein Festival and Missa Solemnis in the Alte Oper, Frankfurt;
conducting the world-premiere of Philip Glass' Concerto for Saxophone
Quartet with the Rascher Quartet and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra
and a televised Sibelius 'birthday' programme with the Finnish Radio Symphony
Orchestra; an invitation by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble to conduct the
Symphony for Winds by Richard Strauss and Schönberg Chamber Symphony
1 for Dutch Radio; a prestigious live televised New Year’s Day concert
(1998) with the augmented Netherlands Wind Ensemble from the Concertgebouw
in Amsterdam; concerts including Schumann Symphony 4 at the Carnegie Hall
in New York and Beethoven’s Symphony Eroica at the BBC Proms in
the Royal Albert Hall, London; an invitation in 2003 to direct a Mozart
Festival in the Concertgebouw Amsterdam; the creation of over forty world-première
commissions of contemporary music from Sweden, Iceland, America, Canada
& the Netherlands; being the first conductor to conduct the Huddersfield
Choral Society (and BBC Philharmonic) in a complete Messiah from memory;
playing as soloist in Mozart's G major Violin Concerto at Chicago Symphony
Hall; playing the organ at the Royal Festival Hall, London for several
Christmas concerts; and playing light piano jazz on national radio from
the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Freiburg Concert
Hall. Roy Goodman has three children and four grandchildren.