Howard Goodall
Specialist Subjects
Arts & Culture, Film & Theatre, Music
Howard Goodall CBE is a composer of musicals, TV and film scores, orchestral and choral music, and a music historian and broadcaster
Howard's TV and film work include Mr Bean, Blackadder, Red Dwarf, Q.I., Johnny English, and The Vicar of Dibley. His score for the HBO film Into the Storm won him a Primetime EMMY award for Original Dramatic Score in 2009.
His music has been commissioned to mark many national ceremonies and memorials and his choral works, The Lord is my Shepherd and Love Divine are amongst the most performed of all sacred music, featuring on several platinum-selling CDs. His Eternal Light: A Requiem has had over 700 live performances throughout the world since its première in 2008 and won him a Classical BRIT Award for Composer of the Year. His Enchanted Voices, a setting of the Beatitudes, was no.1 in the Specialist Classical CD chart for 6 months, winning him a Gramophone award. In June 2012, his Rigaudon formed part of the New Water Music that accompanied Queen Elizabeth II on her Diamond Jubilee Regatta and he was musically responsible for Rowan Atkinson’s memorable performance at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics. On 4th August 2014 his choral work Sure of the Sky-Des Himmels sicher, specially commissioned for the occasion, was performed by an Anglo-German choir at the St Symphorien Military Cemetery to mark the start of the First World War.
Other large scale choral works include Every Purpose Under the Heaven: The King James Bible Oratorio (2011), Invictus: A Passion (2017), Never to Forget (2020-1), for the London Symphony Chorus, paying tribute to health and social care workers who have died in the covid-19 pandemic, and Unconditional Love: A Cantata of Gratitude & Remembrance (2021), which received its world première in Houston, Texas in November 2021 and its UK & European première by the BBC Singers on 13th February 2022, both conducted by the composer.
In the past 20 years Howard has written and presented his own TV documentary series on the theory and history of music. For these he has been honoured with a BAFTA award, an RTS Judges’ Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Education in Broadcasting and over a dozen other international broadcast awards. In recent years he has been England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing and Classic FM’s Composer-in-Residence.
Howard is a witty and engaging speaker on a range of subjects covering the themes of his TV series, music education and on musical theatre.
Howard Goodall is available for live appearances and hosting for a variety of private and corporate events.
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 Kirsty Youngs castaway this week is the composer Howard Goodall. He's a man of eclectic musical tastes and talents creating choral works, popular TV show themes like Black Adder and The Vicar of Dibley and movie scores and musicals. His enthusiasm and deep-rooted commitment to his life's work has regularly propelled him away from the score and onto our television screens where he's presented award winning documentaries like How Music Works. In January 2007 he was appointed as England's first ever National Ambassador for Singing, leading a £40 million scheme to improve group singing in primary schools.   | |