Howard Goodall 
Awarded 2009 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education

The 2009 Karl Haas Prize for Music Education has been awarded to Howard Goodall, whose considerable efforts on behalf of music education did not go unnoticed by the board of The Klassix Society this past year. To be sure, Howard's accomplishments to date have not gone unrewarded in his own country, but The Klassix Society elected him the fifth recipient of the Karl Haas Prize to bring his work to the attention of more Americans. Mr. Goodall is a multi-faceted composer, a radio program host for Britain's Classic FM radio service, and an innovative television series producer.

Of particular interest to the board of directors were Howard's singular television series: Howard Goodall's Big Bangs, Howard Goodall's Choir Works, and Howard Goodall's Organ Works. These three television series were produced in a style reminiscent of the various Connections series by James Burke. Howard has done for classical music what James Burke did for the history of science and technology. Goodall's exploration of world-class choirs in Choir Works is an especially fresh approach to music.

The previous four recipients of the Karl Haas Prize for Music Education include: 'Classical Kids' (The Children's Group/Toronto), Christopher O'Riley (host of 'From the Top'), PRI's 'Performance Today' series, and SFO conductor Michael Tilson Thomas.

The award's namesake, the late Karl Haas, received the first Fine Arts Radio International Awards Lifetime Achievement honor in 2000.

Text of the 2009 Karl Haas Prize Recipient's Letter:

1 December 2009

Mr. Howard Goodall
c/o Classic FM
Global Radio
30 Leicester Square
London   WC2H 7LA

Dear Howard:

Let me congratulate you on your election as the fifth recipient of the “Karl Haas Prize for Music Education.” The accompanying crystal award signifies exceptional contributions in the area of music education by those who work in the profession of radio.

While your diverse work in music and music education has been duly honored in your own homeland, the Klassix Society wished to acknowledge that America should no less recognize your achievements in these areas, and hopes to underscore your efforts to the attention of those who value music education here, across the pond.

The Klassix Society also wants to draw special attention to your innovative televised treatments of music education a la fellow countryman James Burke in your three lively series, “Howard Goodall’s Big Bangs,” “Howard Goodall’s Choir Works” and “Howard Goodall’s Organ Works.”

Since March 2000, the Klassix Society–Friends of 88.7KXMS / Fine Arts Radio International has made excellence in classical music education one of its institutional missions. This mission has been manifested in the ensuing years in three ways: a) competitive awards recognizing the work of radio producers who further classical music education, b) lifetime achievement awards bestowed on those who not only produce classical radio, but whose contributions to music education has been significant over a greater span of time, and c) the “Karl Haas Prize for Music Education,” named for the late music educator whose life work has inspired many and whose level of achievement in the field of music education stands as a clarion call to new generations of music educators. Additional information is available on-line at http://www.mssu.edu/kxms/faria_sitemap.htm.

The Klassix Society and 88.7KXMS Radio hereby raise their collective voices here in the States to praise your work, and hope that you will provide us on both sides of the Atlantic with many more inspiring expressions of music education through the media of radio and television in the future.

Cordially,

Jeffrey D. Skibbe, 88.7KXMS Radio
On Behalf of The Klassix Society

A Few Comments From Mr. Goodall:

1 March 2010

Dear Jeff

I have finally taken delivery from Classic fm's Leicester Square studios of the wonderful engraved glass Karl Haas award, in pristine condition after its long journey across the stormy North Atlantic, a journey I myself will be making in reverse, tomorrow, on my way to present a keynote address at the annual conference of the American Choral Directors' Association in Minneapolis.

It really is such an honour and my first for my involvement in music education from the USA, so particularly special and treasured, not least because the previous recipients are so distinguished.

I am, I believe, extraordinarily privileged to be able to pursue my chosen career in music, to share my passion for it to hundreds of thousands of others and to get paid for it (at least some of the time, anyway)! My mission is to make classical music less scary to ordinary music lovers, a mission that it is quite obvious you at 88.7 KXMS fervently share, since it is my contention that it is not the music itself that creates barriers to enjoyment, but the jargon, the perceived 'clubbiness' of the back-info and the whiff of snobbery that occasionally, regrettably, seeps across the ether with respect to classical repertoire. Without these niggles, I am convinced there's nothing about the last 1,000 of western music that cannot be understood and enjoyed by anyone. Indeed, when people are invited in to the great glories of the classical canon, in my experience they never look back. I suspect these barriers are less of an issue in the States than here in the Old World, since your composers and performers have for a century led the way in taking the starch out of the musical experience. Certainly as a composer I am personally extremely grateful for the frontier-leaping, beauty-cherishing, life-embracing, audience-friendly, unpompous music of your great American composers during my lifetime, from Copland to Lauridsen. It has been one of the many rewards of making my TV series that I have been able to interview both Steve Reich and John Adams, not to mention making a crude recording on Edison's original phonograph, opportunities that I will, hopefully, one day be able to recount to my grandchildren.

It may be of interest to you that the only film footage from the Brooklyn Bridge side of Manhattan of the terrorist outrage that destroyed the World Trade Center in 2001 was made, by sad happen-stance, by my Channel 4 cameraman who was at that very moment on the Bridge shooting wide angle panoramas of lower Manhattan for my documentary on Gershwin, but whose eye caught that incoming passenger jet and he duly left the camera rolling. That I was standing in 5th Avenue watching the impact with my own eyes, preparing to meet that same crew in Union Square, an experience that led to the composition of my own choral anthem Spared, was all due to an exploration of Gershwin, is another tale to tell those grandchildren. That evening at the BBC Proms the planned programme was abandoned, as you may know, and few who heard it on the radio, saw it on TV or were there in person would deny that there are times when a piece of music, in this case Barber's Adagio for Strings, can encapsulate the human condition and the collective emotional experience like no other art or gesture that we have at our disposal. Who would not want to live their life in the pursuit of its meaning, its power, even - dare I say - its divinity?

So may I thank you and your board very much indeed. I hope that I might one day be able to visit Missouri and thank you in person. You give me yet another reason - not that I am short of them - to love America and its people.

Until then, may I send my kindest and most grateful regards,

Yours ever

Howard Goodall