26-year-old violinist Randall Goosby will perform Florence Price's Violin Concerto No. 2 with the World Youth Symphony Orchestra on Sunday.
Goosby, who grew up in Memphis, became the youngest ever winner of the Sphinx Competition at 13 years old, just six years after he started playing.
Now, his schedule is rigorous; upcoming performances include concertos with the Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the London Philharmonic.
He also signed exclusively to Decca Classics in 2020 and released his first album, "Roots," in 2021.
Both "Roots" and Goosby's upcoming Interlochen performance reflect his focus on music by Black composers.
Goosby holds degrees from The Juilliard School, where he studied with Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho.
Listen to his interview with IPR or read the edited transcript below.
Sunday's concert begins at 7:30 p.m. ET.
Attend in person or tune in to Classical IPR's live broadcast - pre-concert commentary begins at 7 p.m..
On performing violin standards versus lesser-known works
I actually just performed the Mendelssohn concerto earlier this summer. And then two weeks later, I performed the Price Concerto No. 2 for the first time in Boulder at the Colorado Music Festival. They were very different experiences, obviously, but one of the things they share is that I’m still communicating. I'm still sharing the same sorts of experiences and emotions that go into any piece of music that I would ever play. Because the only thing I really have to go off of in interpreting a piece of music that's new or hasn't been played very much is my own perception and interpretation of the piece.
With something this new, and something that I've only performed once before, it feels like I'm very early on in the evolution of my relationship with the piece. But I think that's something that makes it really fresh and exciting every single time, not that a Mendelssohn concerto can't be fresh and exciting. But it’s easier to do so with a work that you're introducing people to. It doesn't feel like I'm trying to guide anyone through this music, it feels like we're all exploring it together. And I think that's a bit more of a satisfying experience from my standpoint. So I'm really, really looking forward to it. And I hope the audience here at Interlochen and the World Youth Symphony Orchestra have a great time exploring it as well.
On working with the next generation of musicians
Usually, when I have chances to work with young people, I’m introducing them to classical music or violin. A lot of them haven't heard it or experienced it live very much, if at all. When I have the chance to work with kids who are who are a little bit more experienced and play an instrument themselves, the questions obviously get a little bit more specific. They get a little bit more nuanced, as far as how to get around the instrument, practice techniques, memory tips and all kinds of things like that. It ranges wherever I go.
I find that I am most interested in the questions that young kids have, because in so many cases, there is a sort of filter that doesn't exist with them. They’ll ask things like, “What do you do when your hands get sweaty?” That’s a question I'd never get from an audience member. I get really excited to engage with questions like that that are really rooted in my experience and rooted in experience that they must have had or will have in the future. It sort of makes me feel as if I really am passing a torch in some way. And everything I do, in some way or another, it's just about building up and empowering and supporting the next generation of artists in our in our field and in our community.
On sweaty hands
I sort of accept it. I've messed around a little bit with Gold Bond powder and things like that to try to absorb the moisture on my fingertips. But in my experience, it's never gone better than it would have if I didn't use it. I think the sweat comes from nerves, which come from excitement, which I think makes a live performance really that much more compelling. If you’re listening to it on a CD player, you have no idea what the person looked like, what they're going through, what they're experiencing or what's going on with their face. It all plays into the experience that is a live concert. And I think there's really something special about that.
On his golfing hobby
I’ve done some extensive research, and I'm now at the point where I'm trying to figure out how to get to and from these courses from the Interlochen campus. So I'm still working on that. But I have my clubs. I bring them everywhere I go. Fortunately, here at Interlochen I'm being kept quite busy. So I'm not trying to fill gaps in my schedule quite as much. But oftentimes, especially when it's a concerto engagement, I might arrive on a Wednesday or Thursday and have an evening rehearsal and an evening concert the next day. So I usually have most of the day free, and I like to get out and get some fresh air.
It's a nice way to just escape not only my work and what I do day to day, but also the realities of the world around us, because there’s a lot going on that just tends to pollute and populate the mind. So it’s that on top of the fact that, as a musician, I'm very technique oriented. And I'm very much a perfectionist, and you kind of have to be that way in order to be anything close to a good golfer. So I'm slowly making my way in that direction. But it's just really something that I've had so much fun with over the past couple of years. And for those of you who do golf, you know that once you catch the bug, it's hard to shake it. So I'm just sort of accepting it.
On his upcoming NPR Tiny Desk Concert
It's one of the rare programs that just just completely obliterates genres. It’s anybody and everybody who people want to listen to. So it was a real honor to be asked to do it having seen huge artists from all corners of the world like Augustin Hadelich and Lizzo. It was really cool to be there in front of the tiny desk and see the set where everyone else has done it. It's nothing like I expected but, then again, I didn't really know what to expect. So it was a little nerve wracking in that sense.
It's not the same thing, obviously. But playing at Carnegie Hall, you step on stage and you start to think about and feel all the incredible artists that have been there before you, except this time, I was in an office building and there were some very cluttered shelves behind me. That's the sort of trademark of the show.
It was a great time, and I was very lucky that my friend Zhu Wang, the pianist with whom I recorded my debut album last year was available to do this Tiny Desk concert with me. We played a couple of selections from the album as well as a transcription by Jascha Heifetz. We were able to pick music that we really enjoy purely for personal reasons. And luckily, that enjoyment brings something to us as people, but also, I think, for listeners. Having a bit more of a diverse program than you might be used to hearing from a violin-piano duo, a classical duo especially, is something that's really fun for us, and so is just being able to open people's eyes to different stories that are told through classical music that some never heard before.
On his use of technology
When I was growing up, and during what I think of as my formative years, technology, to me was a computer. And I would use that mainly to listen to and watch recordings. I'd watch recordings of Itzhak Perlman or Heifetz or Pavarotti and all these artists that obviously are quite difficult or impossible to hear in person. Experiencing them in that visual way was always really, really inspiring to me, even if it was just a two or three minute clip of somebody playing.
I'm not quite as good at social media as I as I would like to be. I wish I posted more or had the motivation to post more frequently. And, as I mentioned, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, so unless it's the section of a performance that I'm really, really happy about, I won't really post any videos either. So that's something that's just sort of a personal thing that I that I've got to move past, because I do think that more and more each day, social media is probably one of the biggest influences on the next generation, not just as artists, but as people.
These days, 12- and 13-year-olds have any piece of information they could ever want at their fingertips. So in a way, I think it's really fun that that we have immediate access to all this information. But at the same time, I think it takes a little bit of the mystery out of trying to figure things out and discover new ways to do things. So I don't want to be overbearing with the social media presence.
I think mainly, it's just a way to show people what I'm up to. Because obviously I don't have the chance to interact personally with a lot of the people who follow me and support me. So the least I can do is keep them updated on the happenings around me and where I am and what I'm doing. So I'll figure it out slowly as we as we move along. But it's not something that I pay a whole lot of attention to just because practice takes up quite a bit of time.