John Goodwin - Principal Accompanist, Assistant Conductor

Originally from Birmingham, Alabama, John Goodwin holds degrees in piano performance from Birmingham-Southern College and Northwestern University.  He has been a featured soloist with many orchestras in the South and Midwest, including the Alabama Symphony, Shreveport Symphony, Beloit-Janesville Symphony and the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra.  Most recently, he joined the Chicagoland Pops Orchestra for an evening of Gershwin favorites, including Rhapsody in Blue.  As a recitalist, chamber musician and accompanist, he performs regularly throughout Chicagoland and beyond, and has performed in such prestigious venues as Orchestra Hall (on piano and organ), Buntrock Hall, Chicago Cultural  Center, the Auditorium Theatre, Carnegie Hall, Riverside Church in New York, Jordan Hall in Boston, Vladimir Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia, and the Musikverein in Vienna.  Mr. Goodwin can also be heard on literally hundreds of public radio stations across the country each week playing the opening music for Bill McGlaughlin’s popular program Exploring Music.

For six years, Mr. Goodwin was an accompanist for the Steans Institute Program for Singers at the Ravinia Festival, working closely with many world-renowned singers and pianists, including Thomas Hampson, Sir Thomas Allen, Christina Ludwig, Hermann Prey, Barbara Bonney, Warren Jones, Martin Katz, Phillip Moll and David Owen Norris.  He was on the faculty of Northwestern University for ten years, coaching and performing a wide variety of choral, instrumental and vocal repertoire.  He has been a featured performer at the national conventions of the American Choral Director’s Association, National Flute Association and the International Double Reed Society.  In addition to his work with Chicago Children’s Choir, Mr. Goodwin is an accompanist for the Chicago Symphony Chorus, Roosevelt University’s Choral Program, and is the founding music director and conductor of the Park Ridge Civic Orchestra Chorus.