Kenneth Goldsmith, Honorary Music Director

Kenneth Goldsmith, is violinist with the Mirecourt Trio, an ensemble that enjoys international acclaim through tours, prize-winning recording, and television and radio broadcasts. He is Professor Emeritus of Violin at The Shepherd School of Music. As a recitalist and soloist with orchestra, Mr. Goldsmith has toured the United States, Canada, Mexico, Europe, Taiwan, and the PeopleÕs Republic of China. His teachers include William Kroll, Mischa Mischakoff, and Nathan Milstein. He holds degrees from George Peabody College and Stanford University. Mr. Goldsmith has given master classes throughout the United States, Europe, and Asia, appearing frequently in recital with pianist Jo Anne Ritacca. His extensive recorded repertoire, both solo and with the Mirecourt Trio and Lyric Art String Quartet, appears on the following record labels: ABC, Genesis, CRI, Innova, Grand Prix, Audax, Gasparo, Bay Cities, Varese-Sarabande, Albany, and TR Records. With the Mirecourt Trio, he has embarked on a compact disc series for Music and Arts of America, featuring new American music and the standard literature for piano trio.

In 1962 Mr. Goldsmith won both the Young Concert Artists Competition and the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York, and he received a special award at the Kennedy-Rockefeller International Violin Competition in Washington in 1980. With the Mirecourt Trio, he was a finalist at the 1976 Naumburg Chamber Music Competition in New York. Mr. Goldsmith has been Concertmaster of several American symphony orchestras and has performed with virtually every major conductor and soloist. His academic career includes posts at Stanford University, California State University at Fullerton, Grinnell College, University of Iowa, Pomona College, University of California at Irvine, and the University of Houston. Mr. Goldsmith is co-founder of CONTEXT, a group that performs music of all periods on appropriate instruments.