David Goode is now 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 1991-4, 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 1996-2001 he was Sub-Organist at Christ Church, Oxford and as such toured in Europe, the US, 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.

Recent years have seen a rare solo Proms recital, concerts around Europe, the U.S. and Australia, and a fruitful partnership with the BBCNOW in several concerti. In 2007 he returned to the Walt Disney Concert Hall in LA, as well as playing at the Leipzig Gewandhaus; he plays in Hamburg this Christmas. He also has a duo partnership with the trumpeter Alison Balsom, with an appearance at the Moscow Arts Centre in 2009. 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.

 

‘A performer of tremendous resource, enthralling and captivating his audience with daunting programmes executed with uncompromising skill’

(Royal Festival Hall recital, December 2002, Musical Opinion)

                                                                           

‘Everyone was put in the shade by the stupendous Albert Hall organ, played with immense passion and brio by David Goode’

(Glagolitic Mass at the Proms, July 2004, Daily Telegraph)