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David Goode

About this Artist

DAVID GOODE is among the leading concert organists of his generation. Born in England in 1971, he was a music scholar at Eton College and then organ scholar at King's College, Cambridge from 1991-4, graduating with top honours. While there he studied the organ with David Sanger and Jacques van Oortmerssen. From 1996-2001 he was Sub-Organist at Christ Church, Oxford and as such toured in Europe, the US, Brazil and Japan, and made several recordings. Mr. Goode was recently appointed Organist-in-Residence at The First Congregational Church of Los Angeles (succeeding, among others, Frederick Swann), where he presides over the world's largest church organ in weekly services and recitals.

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 spent the two years between 2001 and 2003 as a freelance concert organist. He has appeared as a soloist at many of the UK's leading venues (such as the Proms and the Royal Festival Hall), as well as playing across Europe, Canada, South Africa and the Far East. He has made many visits to the US since 1998, including features on the popular 'Pipedreams' radio programme, and in November 2002 was Visiting Professor at William Jewell College in Missouri. Amongst a repertoire stretching from mediaeval and renaissance music, he is best known for his performances of large-scale Romantic works, but has also played works by dozens of contemporary composers. His performance of one such, Francis Pott's Christus, was described by the London Times as 'a stupendous achievement'.

He is a regular presence on radio and television in the UK as well as broadcasting in Europe, the U.S. and Australia in recent years. Over several years he has developed a close relationship with the BBC Singers and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, but has also appeared with the CBSO, and recorded Saint-Saëns' 'Organ' Symphony with the BBC Philharmonic. He recorded his first solo CD, French Showpieces from King's, while still an undergraduate; its successors have included the popular Orb and Sceptre, described as 'a justly famous recitalist, playing with panache and sensitivity' (Organist's Review), and Commotio, a disc of 20th-century masterpieces (Choir and Organ - 'imaginative and stimulating…brilliantly clear and well-paced'). He is now engaged in the landmark project of recording the complete organ works of Max Reger on 17 CDs.

An accomplished pianist (after his South Bank début the Guardian spoke of his 'electrifying virtuosity'), he has played in several countries, with a concerto repertoire including Rachmaninov's 3rd. He is also increasingly in demand as a teacher of the next generation of young organists.