Caroline Goulding

On March 14, 2011 Caroline was awarded the Avery Fisher Career Grant at a reception and performance at Lincoln Center’s Stanley H. Kaplan Penthouse.  The 2010-2011 season marked a cycle of solo orchestral engagements including debuts with the Louisville Orchestra, Sarasota Orchestra, Houston Symphony, Charlotte Symphony, El Paso Symphony and the Orchestra of St. Luke’s and return solo appearances with The Cleveland Orchestra, Toronto Symphony and Atlantic Classical Orchestra.  Prior to receiving the Career Grant, Caroline won the 2009 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, and was presented in recital throughout the nation including debuts at the Kaufman Center’s Merkin Hall in NYC, Kennedy Center’s Terrace Theatre in Washington DC and the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.  That same year, Caroline was awarded a Grammy nomination for her debut recording on the Telarc record label.

Along with the nomination, Caroline’s debut recording garnered attention from venerable musicians, including violinist Jaime Laredo who voiced, “Caroline Goulding is one of the most gifted and musically interesting violinists I have heard in a long time; her playing is heartfelt and dazzling throughout.”  Composer John Corigliano, whose Red Violin Caprices she recorded, said, “She gives a totally individual interpretation to my music. I think she will shortly become a very famous young woman and only hope that she gives my other violin works a glance.”

Highlights of the upcoming 2011-2012 season include debuts with the National Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony, Colorado Symphony, Eastern Connecticut Symphony and the Eastern Music Festival Orchestra as well as recital debuts at the Kansas City Harriman-Jewell Series, University of Florida and the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC.  Return engagements include solo performances with the Dallas Symphony and Boise Philharmonic.

Along with her orchestral and recital appearances, Caroline has also made her way through national television and radio airwaves on NBC’s Today, MARTHA PBS’s From the Top: Live from Carnegie Hall, NPR’s From the Top, Sirius Satellite Radio, WNYC New York, CosmoGirl Online and is featured on Maestro Erich Kunzel’s last Telarc recording From the Top at the Pops, released in 2009. In December 2009, Caroline was named Musical America’s New Artist of the Month.

Caroline began studying the violin at the age of three-and-a-half with Julia Kurtyka and will begin studying with Donald Weilerstein at the New England Conservatory in Boston, fall 2011.  A past Starling Foundation Scholarship recipient, Caroline’s previous teachers include Paul Kantor and Joel Smirnoff at the Cleveland Institute of Music.  Caroline has been a part of various summer music festivals including the Aspen Music Festival and School, where she won the Aspen Music Festival’s Concerto Competition at age 13, Interlochen Arts Camp, and The Ceilidh Trail School of Celtic Music on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.  In summer 2011, Caroline will attend the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont.

A past recipient of the Stradivari Society, Caroline currently plays the General Kyd Stradivarius (c 1720), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds.

Critical Praise

“A precociously gifted virtuoso. Indeed, although Goulding is still in her mid-teens, she’s already a violinist of impressive technical polish and musical maturity. ” -Gramophone

“Listening to violinist Caroline Goulding’s new solo disc on Telarc, you might think she was an artist with extensive seasoning. In several crucial ways, she is. She’s performed concertos with major orchestras, appeared on national radio and television shows and collaborated with some of the world’s most esteemed artists.” – Musical America

Self assured, poised, and performing with a wide range of emotional energy and intensity, 18-year old Caroline Goulding‘s debut performance at Merkin Hall this week ranged from soft and lyrical to commanding and powerful. It was the perfect presentation to mark the Fiftieth Anniversary of one of New York City’s premier cultural institutions, the dynamic and career-making Young Concert Artists, Inc.” –The Huffington Post

“Violinist Caroline Goulding joined the orchestra, and, though just 18, showed remarkable balance of restraint and exuberance.  She imbued the opening “Allegro aperto” with joy, and in the “Turkish” section of the final movement, her style became more aggressive and fiery. Her commanding performance made the concerto a worthy finish to a program that turned out to be much more than its name might indicate.”—The Columbus Dispatch

“The vibrant and intensely musical Cleveland violinist Caroline Goulding, still a teenager, makes her compact-disc debut with a marvelous recital of virtuoso morsels. Her playing blends refinement with technical flair, lifting every phrase to exhilarating heights…” –Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Ms. Goulding is already a most impressive talent with all the skills and talent an artist needs to climb to the top.” -Washington Times

“She [Goulding] gave the music ardor, fullness and a rhapsodic sweep.” –Charlotte Observer

“Goulding brought a slender but gleaming tone and dazzling technique to Mozart’s D major Violin Concerto (K. 218). This was also playing of lively personality and suave inflection…  McGegan and a large chamber-orchestra contingent of the DSO admirably matched Goulding’s lively, expressive manner.” –Dallas Morning News

“[Goulding] was cool and focused as she walked out in a drop-dead red gown with her centuries-old Amati violin. Her performance of Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 was clear and captivating.  She wears the music well, sort of the way she wears the gown. She seems born to it, comfortable with it.  Nothing seems strained. She sailed through the first movement, the sound from the Amati delicate but assertive. The slow movement sang, brimming with bittersweet Mozartean romance.  As the fiery “Turkish” interlude began, it was as if Goulding took on a new personality. She played up the contrast so nicely.  Low-key though the ending is, much of the hall gave her a standing ovation. Goulding is still only 17. It will be fascinating to see what awaits this girl in the future.” –The Buffalo News

“Teen-age violin sensation Caroline Goulding knows how to make a violin sing… Goulding sparkled in an iridescent blue gown. She’s the Gidget of the violin. Fresh and energetic, she is a delight to watch and mesmerizing to hear.  If you closed your eyes, you heard the depth of a violinist of more than Goulding’s 17 years.” –Idaho  Statesman

“Caroline Goulding played the Tchaikovsky Concerto as if she’d been living with the piece her entire, short life…The violinist easily surmounted the work’s technical obstacles, of which there’s a bounty.  But Tchaikovsky’s expressive lines also were shaped, rather than merely executed, with tonal warmth and fine attention to detail.  Everything in the violin part could be heard, down to the subtlest trill and quickest flourish.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer

“Goulding displayed the poise and sheer veracity of technique of a veteran soloist.  She drew exceptionally light, supple, articulated tone from her instrument, spinning out flurries of notes with spot-on intonation and superb judgment of how much weight to give to each phrase.  The control at the tip of her bow, coupled with the brilliance of her attack and her spicatto effects, made this an experience worth savoring.” –Louisville Courier Journal

“She played the “Winter” Concerto with fiery temperament, graceful agility and glistening lyricism…In the blistering passages, Goulding smiled broadly as she collaborated with the Red musicians, who produced plenty of icy sonorities in keeping with the concerto’s climatic character.” –Cleveland Plain Dealer

Praise from Fellow Musicians

“Caroline Goulding is a remarkable young artist.  I had no idea she was 16 when I heard her recording of my “Red Violin Caprices”, and wondered why I never heard of this very special performer. Now I know – she’s 16.  But at that age, she gives a totally individual interpretation to my music. She is so musical. And the technique – well, we won’t go into that – it’s so brilliant. I think she will shortly become a very famous young woman, and only hope she gives my other violin works a glance.  Bravo Caroline!” –John Corigliano

“This is an AMAZING CD!!  A great collection of some rarely heard gems played with stunning beauty! Caroline Goulding is one of the most gifted & musically interesting violinists I have heard in a long time; her playing is heartfelt & dazzling throughout.” –Jaime Laredo

“Playing of fantastic style and flair, with an extraordinary virtuosity that always serves the character of the music. A violinist you must hear!” –Peter Oundjian

“Here was freshness, confidence, radiant technique and perfect optimism wrapped in sparkling beauty.” –Alan Fletcher, President and CEO of the Aspen Music Festival and School

“Caroline Goulding is a brilliant talent, one who is destined for greatness.” –Geoffrey Fushi, President of The Stradivari Society