Biography

Pamela Goldsmith, adjunct professor, strings, was raised in Los Angeles and attended UCLA, Mannes College of Music and Stanford University, where she received the degree doctor of musical arts. Her principal teachers were Paul Doktor, William Kroll and William Primrose. She taught at Stanford, California State Universities Los Angeles and Fullerton and is presently on the faculty at the University of Southern California. She has been a member of the American Symphony Orchestra (Stokowski), Casals Festival Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Chamber Orchestra; she was principal viola of the Cabrillo Music Festival, where she presented the West Coast premiere of the Hans Werner Henze Viola Concerto. Her chamber music experience includes the Group for Contemporary Music at Columbia University, Camerata String Quartet, Stanford Chamber Players and Sitka Music Festival. She has participated in numerous first performances of contemporary music, and has presented solo recitals across the country on radio and television. Recently she participated as performer and lecturer in the International Viola Society Congress (Wellington, Minneapolis and Rekjavik), the International Viola d’Amore Congress (Stuttgart and England) and the International Master Courses (Kapaonik, Yugoslavia), as well as the Shanghai Conservatory of Music. Pam is an emeritus winner of the "Most Valuable Player" award from the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences. Her viola playing has been heard on countless records, films and television shows. She is secretary of the International Viola Society and she also plays the viola d'amore. Her articles on the application of scholarly research to performance style have appeared in many journals.