Randall Goosby

Violinist Randall Goosby is one of classical music’s most striking modern performers due to his powerful capacity for storytelling. His 2021 take on George Gershwin’s “Summertime,” originally heard in Porgy and Bess (1935), starts off mournful and yearning, but ends in a flurry of nimble trilling runs that convey urgent whimsy. Born in 1996, Goosby started playing violin at age seven and debuted as a soloist with the Jacksonville Symphony two years later. As a teenager, he became the youngest person ever to win the Sphinx Concerto Competition, leading to studies at Juilliard School in New York with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho. In 2020, Goosby signed to Decca Classics and the following year released his debut album, Roots, which takes influence from spirituals and highlights Black composers such as Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and Florence Price, and combines Goosby’s empathetic approach with nods to blues and jazz. Roots coincided with numerous high-profile appearances with world-class orchestras, including debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl and the London Philharmonic Orchestra.