Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra Announces Violinist Randall Goosby as its 2025 MAC Music Innovator
Photo Credit: Ollie Ali
For Immediate Release
CINCINNATI, OH (October 9, 2024) — Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra (CSO) announced Randall Goosby as its 2025 MAC Music Innovator, a designation that amplifies Black leaders of classical music who embody artistic innovation and a passion for community engagement and education. With support from the Multicultural Awareness Council (MAC), a volunteer group that supports audience engagement initiatives with the Orchestra, Goosby will collaborate with the CSO’s Community Engagement, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DE&I) and Learning departments to create a distinctive residency that includes educational and community engagement programs.
Goosby’s CSO residency will include masterclasses with students from the CSO’s Nouveau Program and students from the Cincinnati Symphony Youth Orchestras. Additional public performances will be announced at a later date.
"The MAC Music Innovator, in name and purpose, enacts a core mission of the CSO Multicultural Awareness Council,” stated Dr. Kori Hill, Chair of MAC, “to showcase the diversity of performers within American classical music. This community-focused artist-in-residence program is an essential tool to connect with audiences and inspire the next generation of music lovers, supporters, and professional musicians in the Greater Cincinnati region. MAC is honored to showcase the immense talent of Randall Goosby as the 2025 MAC Music Innovator."
Goosby is the recipient of numerous honors including the inaugural Harmony for Change Award by Midori & Friends, which recognizes remarkable young musicians who have emerged as champions, leaders and advocates for the classical music community; the 2022 Avery Fisher Career Grant created to support exceptional instrumentalists in their careers; the inaugural Robey Artist by Young Classical Artists Trust in partnership with Music Masters in London in 2019; and in 2020, became an ambassador for Music Masters, mentoring and inspiring students in schools across the United Kingdom. In addition, Goosby was the first prize winner of the Sphinx Concerto Competition in 2010 and Young Concert Artists International Auditions in 2018.
Acclaimed for the sensitivity and intensity of his musicianship alongside his determination to make music more inclusive and accessible, Randall Goosby is a champion of music by under-represented composers. In spring 2023, Goosby released his debut concerto album with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra, performing violin concertos by Max Bruch and Florence Price. His first album, “Roots,” is a survey of music by Black composers that includes premiere recordings of music by Florence Price as well as works by composers William Grant Still, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, and fellow Sphinx and Young Concert Artists alumnus Xavier Foley.
Goosby made his debut with the CSO and Louis Langrée in 2023, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto to in-person and livestreamed audiences as part of the Orchestra’s Live from Music Hall digital concert series. He will return February 8 and 9, 2025 to perform Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2 and Ernest Chausson’s Poème with the Orchestra under the direction of CSO Music Director Designate Cristian Măcelaru.
It is a special honor to receive the 2025 MAC Innovator Award from my friends at the Cincinnati Symphony,” said Goosby. “No matter where I go, or what I play, building community and sharing the transformative power of music with young people is at the center of what I do. I look forward to the exchange of ideas, perspectives, and experiences, which I hope will inspire and motivate students to embrace music for all its wonders!”
“Randall Goosby is one of the foremost violinists of this generation and leading advocate of Black composers, especially Florence Price. His immense talent and skill as well as his passion for community building and highlighting music by under-represented composers are exactly the attributes we seek in our MAC Music Innovator. We are thrilled that Randall Goosby will reunite with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra for a subscription program with CSO Music Director Designate Cristian Măcelaru in February, and we’re excited to see the impact he will have on the Cincinnati community as our 2025 MAC Music Innovator,” said President and CEO of the CSO Jonathan Martin.
Randall Goosby is the 8th MAC Music Innovator since its inception in 2018. Previous MAC Music Innovators include cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason (2024), bassist Endea Owens (2023), conductor Antoine Clark (2022), composer and pianist William Menefield (2021), composer and drummer Mark Lomax (2020), pianist Michelle Cann (2019), and violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins (2018).