Benjamin Goodson is a conductor of exceptional imagination and precision, with a distinctive artistic profile spanning oratorio, contemporary music and 20th- and 21st-century a cappella repertoire.

Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Choir since 2020, Goodson leads the ensemble’s regular concert series at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw. From September 2028 he will become Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the SWR Vokalensemble, one of Europe’s most pioneering and virtuosic ensembles. He has appeared at major venues and festivals across Europe, the USA, China, Japan and Australia, working with leading orchestras, choirs and contemporary-music ensembles.

Highlights of the 2026/27 season include debuts at the Opéra national de Paris, the Schwetzingen Festspiele, the Interfinity Festival Basel and weit! Neue Musik Weingarten. Goodson will lead PhilZuid’s annual tour of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. He conducts the Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, PhilZuid, BBC Singers, Swedish Radio Choir, Baseler Madrigalisten and Klangforum Wien, in repertoire ranging from Bach, Stravinsky and Britten to new music by Chaya Czernowin, Samy Moussa, Juan Trigos and Voro García.

Recognised for his razor-sharp ear, Goodson is a committed advocate of new music and has developed close artistic relationships with leading composers including Sir James MacMillan, Jörg Widmann, Jonathan Dove and Roxanna Panufnik. He has commissioned and conducted numerous world premieres and is particularly noted for his work on technically demanding contemporary scores.

Goodson records for Pentatone. His recent album featuring motets by Mendelssohn and Rheinberger received five stars from BBC Music Magazine and was nominated for the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Other critically acclaimed releases include Songs of Renewal with Bath Camerata and The Voice of the Beloved with the Netherlands Radio Choir. His long-standing relationship with Sir James MacMillan continues with a new Pentatone recording of Seven Last Words from the Cross.

Goodson also explores new ways of presenting classical music, combining traditional concert formats with multimedia, theatre and other art forms. His projects have included Bach’s St Matthew Passion with director Tom Guthrie, the Rundfunkchor Berlin’s Human Requiem and Robert Wilson’s Berlin staging of the Bach Motets.

With British and German roots, Goodson was born in Hertfordshire, England and is based in Berlin. He studied music at Hertford College, University of Oxford. He teaches the Masters’ course in conducting at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam.