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Former contest winner at Juilliard

Goosby winner of prestigious scholarship
Randall Goosby, who just completed his first year at The Juilliard School in New York City, won the 2009 Conservatory Competition at Music in the Mountains. He plays the circa 1600 Maggini "Maggie" violin on loan from the Stradivarius Society.

On Saturday, Music in the Mountains concertgoers heard the winner of the conservatory’s Concerto Competition performing with the Festival Orchestra.

But I, for one, always start thinking about previous winners, as just by chance I happen to know about one, Randall Goosby, who won in 2009 at the tender age of 13.

His father, Ralph, sent me an email after running across a piece I wrote about his son at the time. (And they say newspapers just end up in the recycling bin.)

Goosby continued studying with Philippe Quint – who just happens to have been the soloist at Music in the Mountains on Sunday – until 2011, when he attended the Perlman Summer Music Program - yes, as in virtuoso Itzhak – on Shelter Island, New York. It’s seven intense weeks with only the most gifted string students.

Not only did Goosby find the camp inspiring, it led to his being accepted into The Juilliard School’s Pre-College Program that fall, when he began studies with Perlman himself. So for three years, he commuted to New York City from Tennessee every weekend, flying up on Friday night and returning Sunday. (Just thinking about it makes me want to take a nap.)

After graduating from high school in May 2014, Goosby matriculated at Juilliard as a full-time college student with the Class of 2018, where he has continued studying with Perlman and violinist Catherine Cho. He was one of just 19 undergraduate/graduate students to receive a prestigious Kovner Fellowship at the school last fall.

The young violinist has also been honored by the Stradivari Society as a Rising Star along with scads of other honors. The society loaned him his Giovanni Paolo Maggini violin “Maggie,” (made circa 1600) late in 2009. To a 13-year-old. (And they don’t loan those precious violins to just anyone.)

Quint, by the way, plays the 1708 “Ruby” Stradivarius on loan from the same society. You may recall – although I’m sure he would prefer that we didn’t! – that he left it in the back of a taxi in the Big Apple several years ago. Fortunately, Quint had an honest cabbie and got it back. Quint played a concert for a group of cab drivers in gratitude, which was a very cool response.

Anyway, six years later, it looks like my headline of that article in 2009 was prescient: “Violinist’s future will be bright one.”

Ralph Goosby sent me a couple of links to an interview and performance with Randall on KATV in Little Rock, Arkansas, where the prodigy, as they so correctly billed him, was getting set to solo with the Arkansas Symphony in January. In another connection to Durango, the symphony’s music director is Philip Mann, who graduated from Durango High School and became a Rhodes Scholar before beginning his conducting career. Mann, the son of Durangoan Rochelle Mann, was off, and a guest conductor had the baton, but still, small world, isn’t it?

So here are some fun looks for those of you who would like to see the young teenager turned into a young man: www.katv.com/clip/11086604/interview-with-violin-prodigy-randall-goosby and www.katv.com/clip/11086618/violin-prodigy-randall-goosby-performs-live. And if you want proof I really did predict a bright future, here’s a link to the story I wrote six years ago: www.durangoherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090805/COLUMNISTS03/308059956/0/SEARCH/Violinists-future-will-be-bright-one.

Wouldn’t it be fun to have Goosby back as a guest artist with the Music in the Mountains Festival Orchestra? Just a thought, hint, hint.

abutler@durangoherald.com



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