As part of its tour of the Atlantic Provinces and Maine, the Goldenberg Duo brings a night of classical music and other contemporary pieces to the University of Maine at Presque Isle on Wednesday, May 2, at 7 p.m. in the Auditorium in Wieden Hall. The performance by this brother and sister piano and violin duo is open to the public and free; donations will be accepted at the door for future cultural arts programming.
Both Susan and William Goldenberg have captivated audiences for nearly four decades, touring the world with their music, from Costa Rica to Italy to China, and at venues from Tanglewood to the Smithsonian American Art Museum. During their performance at UMPI, the two will present classical music favorites, from Elgar to Copland to Chopin, along with more contemporary pieces, including Jazz Etudes and Maple Leaf Rag.
Susan Goldenberg, violinist, has performed at the Tanglewood Music Festival, Grand Teton Festival, Colorado Music Festival, Blossom Music Festival, Yale at Norfolk, and Flagstaff Festival of the Arts. She co-founded the Charlotte Symphony String Quartet and the Quartet of San Jose, Costa Rica. She earned her Bachelor of Music degree from Indiana University, where she was elected to Pi Kappa Lambda. She earned her Master of Music degree with a fellowship from Yale University. Her teachers included Franco Gulli, Broadus Erle, and Tiberius Klausner, with chamber music coaching from Josef Gingold, Alexander Schneider, and Gunther Schuller. She has performed under internationally renowned conductors Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Zubin Mehta, Joseph Silverstein, William Steinberg, Leonard Bernstein, Andre Previn, Aaron Copland, Anne Manson, Bernard Labadie, Michael Stern, Yoav Talmi, and Robert Spano.
Miss Goldenberg has been in the first violin section of the National Symphony of Costa Rica, the Charlotte Symphony, the Kansas City Chamber Orchestra, Kinnor Philharmonic, and the Kansas City Symphony for over 38 years. She has taught in the Charlotte school system, University of Costa Rica, and Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp in Michigan. She volunteers at Children’s Center For Visually Impaired in Kansas City, Missouri during her summers.
William Goldenberg, pianist, has performed over 1,000 concerts worldwide as soloist and chamber musician. Concert tours have taken him throughout Europe, Asia, North America, and Australia/New Zealand, including such venues as the Shanghai Concert Hall, Paris’ Les Arts George V Series, Italy’s Settimane Pianistiche Internazionali festival, Chicago’s Symphony Center and Dame Myra Hess Series, and the University of Chicago. Concert sponsors include the National Endowment for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, Consulate General of France, Consulate General of Germany, and Istituto Italiano di Cultura.
His rare breadth and depth of artistry encompasses performances with many prominent artists, including the Vermeer Quartet, London Symphony/Rotterdam Philharmonic Concertmaster Igor Gruppman, Berlin Philharmonic Solo Clarinetist Karl Leister, Boston Symphony Principal Flutist Doriot Dwyer, and Berlin Deutsche Oper Soprano Amanda Halgrimson. His extensive collaborative experience also includes appearances for Chamber Music Chicago, Maine’s Bay Chamber Concerts, The Lake Placid Chamber Players, and California’s Idyllwild Arts Festival. An advocate of contemporary repertoire who has given numerous world premieres, he collaborated with leading composers such as Pulitzer Prize winner Shulamit Ran, Ralph Shapey, Larry Austin, Joyce Mekeel, Hugo Weisgall, and Wang Jian Zhong.
Frequently invited to guest teach at institutions such as Liszt Academy-Budapest, Shanghai Conservatory, and University of Melbourne, he is currently Distinguished Professor and Chair of Piano at Northern Illinois University. He earned his Doctorate from Indiana University where he was appointed Personal Assistant to Menahem Pressler, and Master’s degree from Juilliard on Fellowship with Martin Canin and Rosina Lhevinne.
Together, the Goldenbergs have performed at Kansas City’s Ruel Joyce Series, the Amalfi Coast Music Festival in Italy, The American Cathedral in Paris, and St. Peter’s Church in St. Albans, England. They have travelled to China for concerts and master classes in Beijing and Shanghai, and have toured Scandinavia, British Columbia, Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii, Alaska, and Iberia, Italy. They have also performed in Japan, Ontario, Quebec, Ireland, Scotland, The Hague, France, and Eastern Europe.
UMPI welcomes the campus and the community to come to this event on May 2. For more information, please call UMPI’s Community and Media Relations Office at (207) 768-9452 or email umpi@maine.edu.