Ken Goodenberger has been a prominent member of the musical scene in Phoenix for over 20 years. He is a well-rounded musician, who is active as a conductor, choral clinician, voice teacher, actor and singer. All of his musical endeavors are dedicated to making music of the highest caliber accessible to students, choirs and audiences.
As Music Director of Showcase Concerts, Ken directs the Royal Renaissance Singers and OperaTunity. These two groups perform as many as 100 times a year for a wide variety of audiences. Under Ken’s direction, The Royal Renaissance Singers recorded their first CD: “Sing a Song of Merry Christmas”. OperaTunity has delighted hundreds of audiences, ranging from elementary schools to featured performances with the Phoenix Symphony. These groups are among the best in the state when working with children and Ken’s ability as a teacher and communicator helps this to be true. Ken is a former director of The City of Phoenix Children’s Chorus, and a past Director of the Arizona Elementary All State Choir. Mr. Goodenberger currently serves as Director of Music at Shepherd of the Hills United Methodist Church in Sun City West, Directs the Shir Ami Choir for Temple Kol Ami High Holidays, and is the Artistic Director of the West Valley Chorale.
Ken is even better known to Valley audiences as a singer than as a conductor. In addition to his abundant performances with OperaTunity and the Royal Renaissance Singers, Mr. Goodenberger performs The Ken and Brenda Show at Theater Works, Arizona Broadway Theatre and many other venues on a regular basis and is also a tenor with the Southwest Palestrina Singers and a regular soloist with the St. Thomas Aquinas Schola. Ken has been the featured Soloist with The Grand Salon Orchestra, and in 2008, was featured tenor in Aria ready for an OPERAtunity? with the Oklahoma City Philharmonic in addition to being a featured vocalist for the Phoenix Sister Cities Chengdu Earthquake Relief Fund Benefit at the Orpheum Theatre and featured tenor with the West Valley Symphony. In 2002 he recorded Ramirez’ Misa Criolla with Khenany and the Grammy Award Winning Phoenix Boys Choir, and is an Arizona District Winner of the Metropolitan Opera Competition. Ken has been a frequent soloist and narrator with the Phoenix Symphony, singing as featured tenor in a concert of operatic favorites and also performing Kurt Weill's Street Scene, Mozart's Abduction from the Seraglio, and a staged version of Menotti's Help, Help, the Globolinks! Ken was the featured tenor for the Phoenix Symphony’s first ever sold out weekend of performances with the magnificently reviewed Broadway Showstoppers. Ken most recently received rave reviews as King Arthur in Theater Works' Camelot. He was nominated for an ariZoni as Judge Turpin in Theater Works' Sweeney Todd, and for Tony in Southwest Shakespeare Company’s West Side Story. Other musical credits include Frederick in The Pirates of Penzance, Jacob/ Potiphar in Phoenix Theater’s Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat and Nanki Poo in The Mikado. Ken’s operatic credits include Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni, the title role in Gounod’s Faust, Cavaradossi in Tosca, and Rodolfo in La Boheme, both by Puccini.
Ken maintains a private voice studio and lives in Glendale with wife Brenda and their eight children.