Biography

Paul Goodwin is Artistic Director and Conductor of the Carmel Bach Festival in California. In the US he has conducted the Minnesota Orchestra, National Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra. He makes his San Francisco Symphony debut with these performances. Engagements in the UK and Europe include appearances with the BBC Philharmonic, the Hallé Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, national orchestras of Belgium and Spain, Real Filharmonia de Galicia, the Rotterdam, Helsinki, and Royal Stockholm philharmonics, and the Bavarian, Frankfurt, NDR (Hannover), and MDR (Leipzig) radio orchestras. His recent opera engagements have included Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride at the Komische Oper Berlin, Britten’s Rape of Lucretia at the Teatro Real Madrid, and Handel’s Orlando at Scottish Opera, and Jephtha at Welsh National Opera.

In the 2014-15 season Mr. Goodwin conducts the Auckland Philharmonic, Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin, the WDR Radio Orchestra Köln, Philadelphia Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, the Munich Radio Orchestra, Polish National Radio Symphony, Basel Symphony Orchestra, and the Württemberg Chamber Orchestra Heilbronn. He conducts Handel’s Riccardo Primo with the Karlsruhe State Theater and Bach’s Saint Matthew Passion with Fundacion Excelentia Madrid. Recent highlights have included  appearances with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonic, Grosses Orchester Graz, Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia, Orchestra Teatro San Carlo, Orchestre de Chambre de Paris, and the Mozarteum Orchestra.

For eleven years Paul Goodwin was the associate conductor of the Academy of Ancient Music, with whom he toured extensively and made recordings of Schütz’s choral music, Mozart’s singspiel Zaide, and two discs of music by John Tavener, commissioned for the ensemble. Three of these CDs were nominated for Grammy and Gramophone awards. He was principal guest conductor of the English Chamber Orchestra for six years, collaborating with artists such as Kiri Te Kanawa, Joshua Bell, Maria João Pires, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Magdalena Kožená. He has recorded CDs of Strauss, Hartmann, Handel’s Riccardo Primo and Athalia, and an acclaimed album of Elgar's Nursery Suite for Harmonia Mundi.  

Mr. Goodwin’s dedication to educational projects has led him to work with youth orchestras in Spain and Holland as well as the Royal Conservatory in The Hague and the orchestras of the Royal College and Royal Academy of Music, London. For many years he has been a regular visiting conductor for the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. In 2007, Paul Goodwin was awarded the Handel Honorary Prize of the City of Halle, Germany.

(January 2015)