Richard Goode

An exclusive Nonesuch artist, Goode is a regular performer in the major recital halls and festivals across Europe and the US and performs as soloist with some of the world’s finest orchestras. In a recent season, the Daily Telegraph said “There are brilliant young things among pianists, and there are wise old birds, who show their wisdom naturally in everything they do, without grandstanding or elaborate highlighting of details. Richard Goode is one of the latter sort.”

In recital, Goode performs every season at London’s Wigmore Hall, regularly at the International Piano Series at the Southbank Centre and in major musical centres across Europe, which in reasons seasons has included Amsterdam, Budapest, Madrid, Stockholm, Antwerp amongst others. He has been a regular performer over the years at the Edinburgh International Festival, Pianos aux Jacobins (Toulouse) and in 2017 made his debut at the Verbier, Oxford Piano and Pau Casals festivals and gave the closing concert at Finland’s Mänttä Festival. In the US Goode performs in all the major cities, and in 2017/18 will perform in recital as part of the Lincoln Center’s Great Performers series, in Philadelphia, Berkeley, La Jolla and Madison, among others.

Goode has performed as soloist with most of the major orchestras across the US and many across Europe and in 16/17 he was soloist with Ivan Fischer and the Budapest Festival Orchestra both in Budapest and across the East coast of the US. Highlights of Goode’s 2017/18 season include his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic and returns to the London Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Cleveland orchestras, as well as concerts with the BBC Philharmonic, Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse with conductors including Vladimir Jurowski, Manze and Dohnányi.

Goode has made more than two dozen recordings over the years, ranging from solo and chamber works to lieder and concertos. His latest recording of the five Beethoven concertos with the Budapest Festival Orchestra/Iván Fischer was released in 2009 to exceptional critical acclaim, described as “a landmark recording” by the Financial Times and nominated for a Grammy award. His 10-CD set of the complete Beethoven sonatas cycle, the first-ever by an American-born pianist, was nominated for a Grammy and chosen for the Gramophone Good CD Guide. Other recording highlights include a series of Bach Partitas, a duo recording with Dawn Upshaw and Mozart piano concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra.

A native of New York, Goode studied with Nadia Reisenberg at the Mannes College of Music and with Rudolf Serkin at the Curtis Institute. His numerous prizes over the years include the Young Concert Artists Award, First Prize in the Clara Haskil Competition, the Avery Fisher Prize, and a Grammy award. His first public performance of the complete cycle of Beethoven sonatas at New York’s 92Y in 1987/8 was hailed by the New York Times as “among the season’s most important and memorable events” and was later performed with great success at London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in 1994 and 1995.

Goode is also a highly respected teacher and mentor of young musicians, and holds the position of International Chair of Piano Studies at London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, and is on the faculty at Mannes College (New York). He frequently leads masterclasses at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including at Verbier Festival Academy in 2017, and in 2017/18 has been invited to teach in the public masterclass series at Wigmore Hall.

Richard Goode was co-Artistic Director with Mitsuko Uchida of the Marlboro Music School and Festival in Vermont (USA) from 1999-2013. He is married to the violinist Marcia Weinfeld and they live in New York City.

Image Credit: Steve Riskind