DAVID GOODE

Biography

David Goode is Organist and Head of Keyboard at Eton College, where he presides over a unique collection of historic instruments and teaches some of the UK’s most talented young organists; he combines this with a concert career that takes him to all parts of the world.

Born in the UK in 1971, he was a music scholar at Eton College and then organ scholar at King’s College, Cambridge from 1991 until 1994, graduating with a first and the MPhil degree. While there he studied the organ with David Sanger and in Holland with Jacques van Oortmerssen. From 1996 until 2001 he was Sub-Organist at Christ Church, Oxford and as such toured in Europe, the U. S., Brazil and Japan, and made several recordings. Having won the top prizes awarded at the 1997 St. Alban’s Interpretation Competition, and the Recital Gold Medal at the 1998 Calgary Competition, he concentrated on a free-lance career between 2001 and 2003. In 2003 he moved to Los Angeles, where he combined a busy international schedule with the post of Organist-in-Residence at First Congregational Church, home to the world’s largest church organ.

In 2006 he returned to the Proms for a rare solo recital, toured across Europe and Australia, and renewed a fruitful partnership with the BBCNOW in the Poulenc and Copland concerti. He has concertized in the U. S. extensively in the last decade, including several features on the popular “Pipedreams” radio program: in 2007 he returned to the Walt Disney Concert Hall to appear with the LA Master Chorale, as well as playing at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. Best known for his performances of large-scale Romantic works, he has also played works by a wide range of contemporary composers. His performance of Francis Pott’s Christus was described by the Times as “a stupendous achievement.”

Since his first solo CD, “French Showpieces from King’s,” recorded while still an undergraduate, his recordings have consistently received critical acclaim. Of his 2004 release from Los Angeles, “The Great Organs of First Church, Vol. 2,” the American Organist said “David Goode shows a fearless command of one of the world’s largest church organs. A magisterial performance of Edwin H. Lemare’s transcription of Wagner’s Overture to Die Meistersinger must be one of the finest renditions of this work on record.” 2004 also saw the first volume of a landmark project to record the complete organ works of Max Reger on 17 CDs (“Finally, there’s a set … that competes with Germani’s 1960’s HMV recordings – I thought the day would never come” Choir and Organ); while in December 2005, he recorded the BBC Music Magazine cover CD from Eton College, A Bach Christmas.

Current as of 2007