Benjamin Goodman
Benjamin Goodman
Benjamin Goodman was born in Oxford, England in 1990 and made aliyah at the age of thirteen. He played both piano and violin since the age of five. But, soon after arriving in Israel, decided to concentrate solely on piano. It was then that his first serious study of the piano began, under the guidance of his teacher Esther Narkis. He served as an Exceptional Musician in the IDF for three years, where he initiated a series of explained concerts for trainee officers and combat soldiers, and facilitated the donation of pianos to two army bases.
Following his army service, he continued studying piano with Prof Eitan Globerson at the Jerusalem Academy of Music and Dance, receiving a 100% for his BMus and MMus graduating recitals. In 2017, he graduated with honors his Post-Graduate Diploma at Mannes College of Music, NYC, where he received the 2017 Steinway Award, a prize donated by Steinway & Sons given to an outstanding pianist representing Mannes College. Mr. Goodman has recently begun his doctoral studies at the Royal College of Music in London.
Mr Goodman was awarded the Best Sonata Performance Prize at the 2018 Kerikeri International Piano Competition. He was also awarded first prize at the Argentina Chapter of the World Piano Teacher’s Association International Piano Competition (2018), and first prize and Laureate Winner at the World Piano Teacher’s Association International Piano Competition in Serbia (2018). He won the “Barenreiter-Vertlag” Orchestra’s Favorite Pianist Prize at the Stasys Vainiuans International Piano Competition (2018). He also won first prizes in the Academy’s Piano Solo Competition (2015) and the piano Concerto Competition (2013), and second prize in the Chamber Music Competition (2015). He won second prize in the Tel Hai International Masterclasses Piano Concerto Competition (2012), and third prize at the Ashdod National Piano Solo Competition (2013).
He has performed with the St. Christofer Chamber Orchestra (2018), the Texas Festival Orchestra (2017), the Raanana Symphonette Orchestra (2013), the Jerusalem Academy Symphony Orchestra (2014) and the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra (2005). He has also given public solo performances throughout Israel and the US, as well as in Germany, Spain, Italy, Serbia, Lithuania and New Zealand. Mr. Goodman was invited to give masterclasses, seminars and concerts in Shanghai, China, in the summer of 2018.
Mr. Goodman has been privileged in recent years to have had masterclasses with Prof Lydia Artymiw, Francois Dumont, Prof Eteri Andjaparidze, Maestro Dmitri Bashkirov, Prof Arie Vardi, Prof Malcolm Bilson, Prof Emanuel Ax, Maestro Murray Perahia, Prof Joseph Kalichstein, Prof Matti Raekallio, Prof Claudio Martinez-Mehner, Prof Emanuel Krasovsky, Prof Hung-Kuan Chen, Prof Gabriel Chodos, Ilana Vered, and Prof Joan Havill, among many other distinguished piano teachers. He attended several summer music festivals on full scholarships. Amongst them are Avila “Spaincellence” Summer Music Festival (2012), Siena Academy Summer Music Festival (2013), Chautauqua Institute Summer Music Festival (2014), Aspen Summer Music Festival (2015) and Round Top Summer Festival Institute (2017).
His studies have been generously supported by scholarships from the Royal College of Music, London (RCM Studentship Holder); Mannes College, The New School, New York; the Jerusalem Academy, and, since 2008, by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation.
He produced, presented and performed in a unique concert for Israeli Artists in Carnegie’s Weill Recital Hall (2016) and performed his solo recital debut there in October 2017.
His debut audio CD “Piano Works by Sara Feigin performed by Benjamin Goodman” was released in March 2018, receiving excellent reviews and praise from prestigious classical music magazines such as Gramophone UK.
He recently returned from a month’s tour in Asia performing with a Chinese violinist and teaching masterclasses in Shanghai, Taipei and Singapore (December 2019 – January 2020)
Mr. Goodman spent six months as a resident artist on Kibbutz Samar in southern Israel as a piano and music teacher and as a piano teacher at the regional district elementary school in Yotvata (2019). He is currently working as a piano teacher at the Jerusalem Academy of Music’s Conservatory and its East Jerusalem branch called “Ibdaa” (2019 – )
