Rachel Goodwin, Artistic Director
Rachel Goodwin has been the Artistic Director of Ashmont Hill Chamber Music since its founding in 1985. She is a performer, a teacher, and a resident of Ashmont Hill who is committed to the community’s cultural growth. As Artistic Director she designed and is now implementing an artist residency (in three area high schools) and concerts program entitled “Music, Poetry and American” identity which is funded by the National Endowment for the Arts under the category “American Masterpieces Chamber Music” and features the music of Ruth Crawford Seeger (with poetry by Carl Sandburg). In 2002, Rachel Goodwin was named by the Boston Cultural Council as an Artist/Humanist Fellow in the City of Boston. Artist/Humanist Fellows are chosen because of the quality of their creative work, their dedication over time, their community building efforts, and their outreach to the public at large
Ms. Goodwin has appeared in solo recitals and as a chamber musician throughout the eastern United States and California, including at New England Conservatory, the Mannes College of Music, the Gardner and DeCordova Museums, Harvard University, Longy School of Music, Weston Public Library, University of California at Santa Cruz, University of California at Riverside, WGBH, WCRB and WUMB radio, Boston's First Night Celebration, and as a concerto soloist with the Brookline Symphony Orchestra. She has participated in summer music festivals at Ernen Musikdorf (Switzerland), Aspen, the Banff Centre (Canada), and New College (Florida).
Ms. Goodwin holds and an M.M. (with honors) from the New England Conservatory and a Diploma in Piano Performance from the Mannes College of Music in New York. Her piano teachers include Edith Oppens, Barbara Shearer and Alexander Lieberman, and she has performed extensively in master classes for Karl Ulrich Schnabel and Gyorgy Sebok. Her chamber music coaches have included Eugene Lehner, Luis Battle, John Graham and Lorand Fenyves. Active as a music theorist as well as a performer, Ms. Goodwin presented a lecture-recital on Bartok that was the featured event at a joint meeting of two music theory societies. Ms. Goodwin has served as a chamber music coach for the New England Conservatory's Schools of Preparatory and Continuing Education. Last fall she presented a masterclass for the Longy School of Music (Preparatory Division) Performance Hour and for the past four years she has lectured for Longy's (College Division) piano pedagogy class on the integration of music theory into piano teaching. She served as a member of the Board of the New England Piano Teacher's Association from 2007-2009. Ms. Goodwin maintains an active independent studio with studio locations in Ashmont Hill, Cambridge and Newton. (www.rachelgoodwinpianolessons.com)