In his 23 years of service to the community of Westminster Choir College and Rider University, Professor of Piano James Goldsworthy, has been an associate dean, the chair of three departments, coordinator of piano secondary, a member of University-wide and Westminster-specific committees, the recipient of a New Jersey Educational Opportunity Fund Champion award and an avid student of the art of music.
Honored by Rider University’s 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award, he has also taught at Goshen College, Stanford University and the University of St. Thomas. During two residencies in Vienna, one under the auspices of a Fulbright grant, Dr. Goldsworthy studied late 18th and early 19th-century fortepiano construction, did research in pianoforte instruction of the same time period and coached voice students at the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst.
He has performed throughout Europe, Israel, Japan, Canad, and the United States; co-edited with Judith Bettina song collections of Tobias Picker and Chester Biscardi; premiered and recorded with Judith Bettina works by Milton Babbitt, Mel Powell, Chester Biscardi, Christopher Berg, Tobias Picker and David Rakowski; and collaborated in performance with many Westminster colleagues. He holds degrees from Southern Methodist University and Stanford University, and he has studied at the Université Catholique de l’Ouest (Angers, France), the Shinichi Suzuki Talent Education Institute (Matsumoto, Japan), Universität Wien and the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst in Wien.
In addition to his teaching at Westminster, Dr. Goldsworthy is on the faculty of the Bennington Chamber Music Conference, and he serves as director of music at Lamington Presbyterian Church in Bedminster, N.J. His work is a reflection of the gifts of the teaching of Dorothe Lanning, John Price, Louise Bianchi, Lloyd Pfautsch, Louise Mueller, Larry Palmer, Barbara Marquart, Alessandra Comini, Adolph Baller, Erik Werba, Margaret Fabrizio, Fenner Douglass, Susan Bindig, Wendy Hilton, Leonard Ratner and Lilo Kantorowicz-Glick.