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Howard Lindsay Goodall (; born 26 May 1959) is an English composer of Musical theatre, Choir and Incidental music. He also presents music-based programmes for television and radio, for which he has won many awards. In May 2008, he was named as a presenter and "Composer-in-Residence" with the UK radio channel Classic FM. In May 2009, he was named "Composer of the Year" at the Classic BRIT Awards.
He is married to Val Fancourt, who is a classical music agent, and they have two daughters.
A Winter's Tale now known as A Summer's Tale, commissioned for the opening of the Sage Gateshead in December 2005 was presented during 2009/10 by Youth Music Theatre UK. In 2011 its London professional premiere at the Landor Theatre won the Off west end award for Best New Musical.
Love Story, based on the novella by Erich Segal, premiered in 2010 at the Minerva Theatre, Chichester.
, written with Gurinder Chadha, Paul Mayeda Berges and Charles Hart began previewing at the Phoenix Theatre, London, in May 2015.
Other musicals include Girlfriends (1986), Days of Hope (1991), Silas Marner (1993), The Kissing-Dance (1998), The Dreaming (2001) (both with Charles Hart), A Winter's Tale (2005) and Two Cities (2006).
As an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, Goodall met actor Rowan Atkinson and writer Richard Curtis, his collaborators on several of these projects, including his first break into TV, Not the Nine O'Clock News.
In March 2009, Classic FM released Howard Goodall's Enchanted Voices, a modern exploration of ancient chant, scored for upper voices, cello, organ, handbells and synthesiser. The disc marks Goodall's position as Classic FM's Composer-in-Residence for 2009. A month after its UK release, it became the best-selling specialist choral CD of 2009. It subsequently earned a nomination for Classical Brit Album of the Year. Howard Goodall's Enchanted Voices was followed by Howard Goodall's Enchanted Carols (November 2009) and Pelican in the Wilderness (March 2010).
Goodall arranged an orchestral and choir score for Psalm 122 for Tonbridge School to commemorate their chapel which burnt down in the 1980s. Goodall was also commissioned by Truro Cathedral to write a new work for all four of the Cathedral's choirs: Truro Cathedral Choir (boys and men), St Mary's Singers (mixed adults), Cornwall Youth Choir and Cornwall Junior Choir. The piece, entitled A New Heart, A New Spirit, sets a text from Wisdom and Ezekiel in four languages (English, Latin, French and Cornish).
The 45-minute oratorio, Every Purpose Under the Heaven (The King James Bible Oratorio), was premiered in Westminster Abbey in November 2011 (conducted by the composer). It was commissioned as a gift to the United Church Schools Trust and United Learning Trust from Sir Ewan and Lady Harper, to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible. Every Purpose Under the Heaven was recorded and released on the Decca Classics/Classics fm CD Inspired in 2012.
Goodall's commission Rigaudon was part of Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Regatta and he was musically responsible for Rowan Atkinson's performance at the Opening Ceremony of the 2012 London Olympics.
I am Christmas Day premiered at Southwark Cathedral as part of the Mercy Ships Charity annual Carol Service on Wednesday 5 December 2012. Commissioned by Mercy Ships UK, the work was performed by Southwark Cathedral Girls Choir, conducted by the composer.
Goodall contributed two choral items for the August 4th commemoration of the beginning of the First World War at St Symphorien Military Cemetery near Mons, Belgium, broadcast live in BBC2. He arranged British and German soldiers' songs into a suite with band accompaniment (The Band of the Coldstream Guards) and composed an entirely new work in English and German, "Sure of the Sky, Sure of the Sun – Des Himmels sicher, der Sonne sicher", performed jointly by the London Symphony Chorus and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir, conducted by Simon Halsey, based on the poems "May, 1915" by Charlotte Mew (1869–1928) and "An einen vermißten Freund!" by a German soldier killed in action on the Western Front, Goldfeld (discovered by Peter Appelbaum). Present at the event, alongside members of the UK Government, were the presidents of Germany and Ireland, the King and Queen of the Belgians, and Prince William and Catherine and Prince Harry.
Steadfast, with music and lyrics by Goodall, was released on 14 October 2014, in aid of Global's Make Some Noise, a charity that helps disadvantaged children in the UK. Steadfast included performance contributions from Katherine Jenkins, Laura Wright, Milos, Charlie Siem, Alfie Boe, Myleene Klass and Alexander Armstrong.
More Tomorrows was commissioned by Classic fm for Cancer Research UK and premiered by the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on 25 April 2013, conducted by the composer.
Invictus: A Passion, a 55-minute work for soloists, chorus and small orchestra, was commissioned by St Luke's United Methodist Church in Houston, Texas, and premiered there under the composer's baton in March 2018, with the UK premiere following in May 2018, given by the Choir of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford and Stephen Darlington.
Unconditional Love: A Cantata of Gratitude and Remembrance was commissioned by St Luke's United Methodist Church, Houston as a piece to reflect the world we were living in through the Covid-19 pandemic (premiered in Houston in 2021). St Luke's also commissioned Christmas Cantata which premiered again in Houston (Dec 2019) and both pieces are now having national premieres worldwide.
Broadcast on BBC2:
Goodall received a Royal Television Society award for Organworks and the 2000 BAFTA Huw Wheldon award for Big Bangs, which also won several international prizes, including a Peabody Award.
Goodall was musical commentator for the V&A exhibition David Bowie Is in 2013,[2] Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes in September 2010, and in 2017.
| 1979–1982 | Not the Nine O'Clock News | 28 episode | |
| 1983–1989 | Blackadder | 24 episodes | |
| 1985–1986 | ABC Weekend Special | 2 episodes | |
| 1987 | CBS Schoolbreak Special | Episode: "What If I'm Gay" | |
| 1987 | Murder by the Book | Lawrence Gordon Clark | Television film |
| 1988–2017 | Red Dwarf | 73 episodes | |
| 1989 | Carl Jung: Wisdom of the Dream | Stephen Segaller | |
| 1990–1992 | No Job for a Lady | 9 episodes | |
| 1990–1995 | Mr. Bean | 15 episodes | |
| 1991 | Bernard and the Genie | Paul Weiland | Television film |
| 1992 | A Time to Dance | Kevin Billington | |
| 1992 | The Borrowers | John Henderson | |
| 1994-2020 | The Vicar of Dibley | Dewi Humphreys (series 1-2), Gareth Carrivick (series 3), Barbara Wiltshire (lockdown episodes) | 24 episodes |
| 1995 | The Last Englishman | John Henderson | Television film |
| 1995–1996 | The Thin Blue Line | 14 episodes | |
| 1997 | Chalk | 12 episodes | |
| 1999 | Paul Weiland | Television short film | |
| 2002 | The Gathering Storm | Richard Loncraine | |
| 2002–present | 143 episodes | ||
| 2003–present | QI | 322 episodes | |
| 2003 | The Adventure of English | ||
| 2005 | Shakespeare's Happy Endings | Stephen Leslie | |
| 2005 | The Catherine Tate Show | Theme music composer | |
| 2009 | Into the Storm | Thaddeus O'Sullivan | Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score) |
| 2012–2015 | Intresseklubben | 34 episodes | |
| 2013 | The Spa | 7 episodes | |
| 2023–2024 | Concordia | Barbara Eder | 6 episodes |
| 1997 | Bean | Mel Smith | |
| 2003 | Johnny English | Peter Howitt | Theme music composer, main score composed by Edward Shearmur |
| 2007 | Mr. Bean's Holiday | Steve Bendelack | |
| 2018 | Johnny English Strikes Again | David Kerr |
In April 2009, Goodall was nominated for The Classical BRITs "Composer of the Year" award for Eternal Light: A Requiem, which he won in May 2009, and in July 2009 he was nominated for an Emmy Award in the category "Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or Special (Dramatic Score)" for his work on the Winston Churchill biopic Into the Storm; which he went on to win on 12 September at a ceremony in Los Angeles.[3]
In 2009, Goodall received the Karl Haas Prize for Music Education, awarded by the Klassix Society–Friends of 88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International of Missouri Southern State University.
Additional awards include the Naomi Sergeant Memorial Award for Outstanding contribution to British Music, the MIA/Classic fm award for Outstanding contribution to Music Education and a Primetime Emmy Award for Original Dramatic Score for the score of the HBO film Into the Storm.
In January 2011, Goodall was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2011 New Year Honours for services to music education.
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