2006

Howard's Channel 4 series How Music Works, aired on Channel 4 at the end of 2006, to great acclaim. You can go to a dedicated page for this series on this website here, and Channel 4's How Music Works microsite is here. The series was re-run on More4 in December. More4 programme listings are here. How to get the More4 (Freeview) channel click here. A further page of information about the series on this site can be found here. Channel 4 have no plans yet to release the series on DVD, nor is there an accompanying book. Sorry! Howard's award-winning Channel 4 series Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats was transmitted no less than four times during 2005. All Howard's series are shown regularly in the UK (and anywhere receiving Sky) on the Artsworld channel. Howard Goodall's 20th Century Greats won a Royal Television Society Award for Education. It was also nominated for the 2005 BAFTAs (Huw Weldon Award) and an International Rose d'Or. Further information and press reviews can be found here. News of Howard's other recent awards can be found here.

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Howard's most recent CD [CCL CDG 1155] is Winter Lullabies, his song cycle for upper voices and harp, performed by the boys of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, directed by Stephen Darlington, with star soloist Catrin Finch on harp. It can be ordered here. Winter Lullabies received its live premiere at St John's Smith Square on December 13th 2006.

Winter Lullabies is published by Faber Music and can be ordered here.

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Howard once again co-presented the Music for Youth Schools' Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, November 13-15th, was chief juror for the BBC Choir of the Year finals (broadcast by Radio 3 and BBC FOUR in December) and presented the BBC Radio 2 Young Chorister of the Year from Westminster Abbey on 5th November. In May Howard presented the BBC Young Musician of the Year final from the Sage Gateshead and in August he presented the BBC Promenade Concert featuring the (fabulous) National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.

Howard wrote a song with Charles Hart for the first Barbican Panto, Dick Whittington & his Cat. From The Sunday Times Culture 10th December:

"....The romantic leads, the thigh-slapping principal boy, Summer Strallen - of the the Dame says, 'we've never had a slapper in the family before' - and her love interest, Alice Fitzwarren (Caroline Sheen), are splendid, in particularly fine tune during the show's best song, Like You, by Howard Goodall and Charles Hart...." [Patricia Nicol]

Howard welcomed the launch of the 2nd Music Manifesto Report, Making every child's music matter, on 18th October. He has been chair of the Vocal Strategy Workstream for the Music Manifesto and Youth Music. Downloadable copies of the report (including Howard's article in it), its recommendations to Government, news and further details can be found at the Music Manifesto website.

Howard's musical Two Cities completed its successful premiere run at the Salisbury Playhouse in October 2006. Joanna Read, who wrote the book, directed a fine young cast. Joanna and Howard are currently working on revisions for a second production of Two Cities, in 2008.

Howard and Charles Hart's musical The Dreaming was revived in July and October by the National Youth Music Theatre.

Currently running TV series for which Howard has composed theme and incidental music are The Catherine Tate Show, Q.I., The Vicar of Dibley, Twelve Books that Changed the World, Seaside Parish, Island Parish.

2005

Howard's musical written with Nick Stimson, A Winter's Tale, commissioned by The SAGE Gateshead, was performed in December 2005 by a cast and band of young people, to great acclaim.

Howard attended the premiere of a Christmas anthem, Out of the Dark Past, for the choir of King's School Canterbury, in Canterbury Cathedral, on December 14th, directed by Howard Ionascu. The commission was dedicated to the memory of Lucy Holland, a student of the school, who died in the Boxing Day Tsunami.

On Saturday 26th November at LSO St Luke's in London, Howard recorded his BBC Radio 2 Christmas Concert, broadcast on Christmas Day at 10pm. It featured the BBC Concert Orchestra conducted by John Wilson and The London Adventist Chorale, directed by the effervescent Ken Burton. One of the world's leading players, acclaimed Welsh harpist Catrin Finch, performed, as well as 'the world's first choir boyband' The Choir Boys and the versatile, former member of The Swingle Sisters, soprano Joanna Forbes. Joanna sang two world premieres by Howard, The Angel Gabriel and Latin Lullaby. Latin Lullaby was also performed in its full choir version by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford at carol concerts in London and Oxford.

Howard was the featured guest on BBC Radio 4's Great Lives on October 21st, choosing the black English composer Samuel Coleridge Taylor as his 'great life' choice.

He wrote a song for Aled Jones' CD New Horizons, on Universal Classics.

Howard also had two tracks, Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd (theme from The Vicar of Dibley) and Ecce homo on The Choirboys' debut CD. His Psalm 23: The Lord is my shepherd (theme from The Vicar of Dibley) also featured on two other new CDs, Relaxing Classics from Classic FM, ....and In Dreams, from Sony/BMG's new boy singing star Joseph McManners......as well as on Bryn Terfel's smash hit CD of Popular Classics. The CD, which has won the Classical Brits award for CD of the Year can be ordered from Amazon here. All the above Cds & tracks are also now available on iTunes.

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Premieres of new choral commissions by Howard included a festive anthem Ecce Mater Tua for the Schola Cantorum of the Cathedral of St John, s'Hertogenbosch in the Netherlands (November 6th 2006), Saved (based on Wendy Cope's haunting poem about 9/11) for the Methodist College Belfast's Chapel Choir, in St Anne's Cathedral Belfast (October 27th).

He contributed to a BBC 2 documentary, The Best and Worst of God, presented by Vic Reeves, as an 'expert', and a BBC FOUR documentary about the hymn Jerusalem. The Guardian review of this programme (9th September 2005) read: "This was a lovely film, with lots of good people talking about Jerusalem. Best of all was the composer Howard Goodall, who explained why Jerusalem sounds so English. At the end, it builds to its big climax: "till we have built Jerusalem.." But after that, the tune contracts again, as if we're slightly embarrassed about the patriotism in the previous line. And it comes back down again, almost apologetically: "In England's green and pleasant land." isn't that great?..." (Sam Wollaston)

On Saturday 30th July 2005 Howard hosted an event connected with the BBC Proms on behalf of the Music Manifesto at the Royal Geographical Society. It included an address by Howard, a live performance by members of the National Youth Orchestra and the premiere of a short film Howard made for the Manifesto, Tell Tchaikovsky the news - young musicians embrace the future, commissioned by Marc Jaffrey, the Music Manifesto champion. In May he had been keynote speaker at the Music Manifesto Signatories' conference. His speech at this event can be found here.

Howard was immensely honoured to be a Cultural Ambassador for the successful London 2012 Olympic Bid.

Howard became a Youth Music trustee.

2004

Howard's new work for brass band, Saraswati, for the Smithills School Senior Band and their musical director Chris Wormald, received its world premiere at Bluefield College, West Virginia, on 3rd August 2005, as part of the band's rapturously-received USA Tour. It was recorded live on CD. He first encountered the musicians of Smithills when their Senior Brass Band played at the Albert Hall Schools' Prom in November 2003 and was so knocked out by the excellence, maturity and beauty of their playing that he offered to compose a new work for them. Saraswati is the result. In April 2004 Howard was in Bolton to launch the new Special Performing Arts College Status of Smithills School. He unveiled a plaque celebrating the new chapter in the school's history. A few months later they appeared on his South Bank Show Musical Nation. The Smithills Band performed again at the 2005 Schools Proms

December 2004 saw the opening of the SAGE Gateshead of which he is a proud trustee.

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He presented, with Aled Jones and Petroc Trelawny, the TV and Radio 3 coverage of the BBC Radio 3 Choir of the Year. He worked on two new Vicar of Dibley Christmas and New Year specials for the BBC and an orchestral suite of Red Dwarf, given its world premiere by the Halle Orchestra at Bridgewater Hall in Manchester in October 2004. A new series of the BBC's Q.I. featured Howard's theme music. He also composed music for the second series of the BBC 2's Seaside Parish which began on 28th December 2004 with a special about the Boscastle flood disaster.

In October, at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith, the Salisbury Playhouse production of Howard & Melvyn Bragg's musical The Hired Man, directed by Joanna Reed, won the TMA Award for Best Musical. This was the first major professional revival in the UK since the late 80s and was received with outstanding reviews. Lynn Gardner's Guardian review of it, for example, can be found here. The Hired Man also enjoyed a sell-out, critically acclaimed run at the Theatre by the Lake, Keswick - the first professional production of the piece in the county of its origin. Amongst many revivals of The Hired Man in 2005 are productions in Whitehaven (the mining town where the Tallentires live in Act 2!) and on Teesside, and the Dutch-language version by the Amersfoortse Muziektheatergroep. Days of Hope was produced at the Northcott Theatre, Exeter, directed by Nick Stimson to great acclaim in June 2004. A production of it is being planned in Dallas, Texas, for 2005, and the Dutch-language version of Days of Hope will be given its premiere by Het Musical Lab at the Werkteater Amsterdam in 2005.

Link to Howard's Musicals page

Howard contributed three new hymn arrangements for the Griffin CD Favourite Hymns from Oxford, sung by the choir of Christ Church Cathedral Oxford, directed by Stephen Darlington. These are Morning has broken, When I survey the wondrous cross, and Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika.

New Publication: Howard's Love divine, in a setting for upper voices, was included in a new Faber collection, 30 Sacred Masterworks. Love divine sits flatteringly alongside Mozart, Beethoven, Byrd, Faure, Palestrina, Schubert and Handel, to name but a few. The 163-page volume is only £10.95 and a pack of 10 is just £89.95. It can be ordered here. Faber Music is also released its male voice choir version (TTBB) of Howard's Psalm 23 (the Vicar of Dibley theme).

Link to Howard's Choral Page

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