Recognized for his bold, vibrant, and heartfelt performances, Benjamin Goodson is a leading conductor of choral and instrumental music. Benjamin is the Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir, with which he appears regularly in concert at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. Their recent disc of Mendelssohn and Rheinberger motets (2023 on Pentatone) was met with critical acclaim, including 5 stars from BBC Music Magazine. Benjamin also works as a guest conductor with many of the world's other leading choral ensembles, among them the Rundfunkchor Berlin, BBC Singers, SWR Vokalensemble, Collegium Vocale Gent, MDR Rundfunkchor, and NDR Rundfunkchor.

Adept in 20th and 21st-century a cappella music, Benjamin regularly conducts the central a cappella repertoire. He is dedicated to performing and commissioning new music. Benjamin has commissioned or given the first performances of works by composers such as Sir James MacMillan, Jonathan Dove, Roxanna Panufnik, Peter-Jan Wagemans, Baart Visman, and others. He has performed and recorded some of the most technically challenging choral scores in existence, including those by Feldman, Berio, Ligeti, Friedrich Cerha, and Steve Reich. Benjamin is also a passionate advocate of historically-informed performance in Baroque and Classical repertoire, and regularly conducts the choral-orchestral music of Bach, Handel, Mendelssohn, and Haydn.

In addition to traditional concerts, Benjamin creates new ways to experience choral singing, experimenting with surprising cross-genre collaborations and the use of video and multimedia. He has staged Bach's St Matthew Passion with Tom Guthrie, performed in Rundfunkchor Berlin's Human Requiem, and assisted in developing Robert Wilson's groundbreaking staging of the Bach Motets. For the Netherlands Radio Choir, he created the multi-disciplinary format, The Living Room. The first edition of this format staged and ritualized the choral works of Igor Stravinsky. Future editions included a video installation of Tarik O’Regan’s Mass Observation and a collaboration with artist Sven Ratzke (“A Circus of Angels”). Benjamin is driven by the belief that these formats can create powerful new points of connection for audiences with the repertoire.

Born in Hertfordshire, UK, Benjamin Goodson studied music at Hertford College, Oxford. Benjamin studied conducting with Sir Colin Davis, Paul Spicer, Peter Stark, and Ulrich Windfuhr. Three years after graduating, Benjamin was himself appointed Director of Music at Somerville College, becoming the University of Oxford's youngest Director of Music. Benjamin teaches conducting as a lecturer at the Conservatoire of Amsterdam.

Picture by Eduardus Lee