HARRIS GOLDSMITH, CRITIC and PIANIST PASSES AWAY at 78.
As New York Concert Review wrote in the New York Times,
“IT’S WITH DEEP SADNESS THAT NEW YORK CONCERT REVIEW MOURNS
THE PASSING OF THE INIMITABLE MUSICAL POLYMATH, HARRIS GOLDSMITH.”
He was one of the first critics to be invited to join our staff at New York Concert Review over 21 years ago! Needless to say, we were delighted when he agreed as he had a reputation of many years of experience, having written for numerous major music magazines and newspapers. He taught at the Mannes College the New School for Music, gave classes at the Eastman School of Music and coached several up-coming talented pianists, string players and chamber groups. Mr. Goldsmith was also a visiting professor at the State University of New York, Binghamton, now called Binghamton University. Mr. Goldsmith graduated from New York’s High School of Music and Art, received his bachelor’s and master‘s degrees from the Manhattan School of Music where he was a student of Robert Goldsand.
His reviews could be highly caustic, yet at times highly praiseworthy.
In an obituary in the New York Times of April 23, Vivien Schweitzer wrote, ‘In a recent article for New York Concert Review, for example, he wrote about the young cellist James Jeonghwan Kim, ‘Never before have I encountered such winged, such airborne joy, such silken smooth bowing and tone production.’
It was rare that you could attend a concert, especially of a pianist, and not see Harris Goldsmith. Music was his life! No immediate family members survive.
