LTC: Randall Goosby

In October 2020 Randall, a champion of diversity in classical music, signed with Decca Classics. Randall was named the inaugural Robey Artist in partnership with London Music Masters in 2019 and was a prize winner in the 2018 Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.

His debut album, set for release in spring 2021, will journey across more than a century of African-American music for violin, tracing its roots in the spiritual through to the present day. The album will feature works by composers William Grant Still and Florence Price, plus newly commissioned music by Goosby’s friend and fellow Sphinx and YCA Artist Xavier Foley.

Born of an African-American father and Korean mother raised in Japan, Goosby can’t remember a time when he wasn’t connected to classical music. From the moment he picked up a violin at the age of seven, the immediate sense of joy he felt when playing shaped his childhood, inspiring marathon practice sessions and regular trips from his home in Memphis, Tennessee where Itzhak Perlman had arranged a full scholarship for him to study with him at Juilliard.

Goosby recently featured at the UK Gramophone Awards alongside composer John Williams in a tribute to Perlman, who was recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award. Goosby has performed frequently with Perlman, most recently in the Bach Double Concerto with the Grand Rapids Symphony.

Goosby’s concerto debut with the Jacksonville Symphony aged nine, was followed, at thirteen, with the New York Philharmonic at a Young People’s Concert and with the Cleveland Orchestra where his performance was praised for “an astonishing degree of musical maturity” (Cleveland Plain Dealer). He recently made his Kennedy Center debut in Washington DC and in 2021 will make his recital debut at London’s Wigmore Hall.

Goosby complements a demanding performance schedule with volunteer commitments that allow him to use his artistic skills to inspire and serve others. He has participated in community engagement programmes across the United States, including Opportunity Music Project, which provides free lessons, instruments, and mentoring for children from low-income families in New York City, and Concerts in Motion, which provides private house concerts for elderly and homebound patrons.

He is currently pursuing an Artist Diploma with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho at The Juilliard School, where he earned both undergraduate and graduate degrees, as a Kovner Fellowship recipient. Randall Goosby plays a Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu of 1735, on generous loan from the Stradivari Society.