Rachel Goodwin, Artistic Director and Pianist

A pioneer in the chamber music landscape, pianist and artistic director Rachel Goodwin founded Convergence Ensemble in 2015. Previously, Goodwin had founded and served as Artistic Director of Ashmont Hill Chamber Music, an urban and grassroots supported chamber music series based in Dorchester, MA, for nearly three decades. Together with a core group of musicians with connections to some of Boston’s finest musical institutions she has designed, implemented and performed in concerts hailed by the press for their “gutsy, risk-taking programming” (Patriot Ledger). She is pleased to continue collaborating with these musicians, as Artistic Director and member of Convergence Ensemble.

A highlight of her work with Convergence Ensemble has been “American Voice in Poetry and Song,” a program which explores American voice of the past and present through spoken and sung word featuring baritone Robert Honeysucker and literary performer Regie Gibson. Goodwin had the privilege of working with Honeysucker in concerts and in programs for Boston school children for more than two decades.

Goodwin’s work as Artistic Director and performer has been recognized by three awards from the National Endowment for the Arts and nearly continuous funding from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, as well as by the City of Boston, which named her an Artist/Humanist Fellow in 2002. She also addressed the 25th Annual Conference of Chamber Music America on “Creating Your Own Concert Series.”

In her programming, Goodwin has championed works for unusual combinations of instruments (including a great deal of vocal chamber music), as well as works by under-recognized composers alongside recognized masterpieces of chamber music. She was one of the first musicians in the country to perform major works by Ruth Crawford Seeger, who is now regarded as one of the greatest American composers. Her vision of bringing high quality chamber music to new audiences resulted in a National Endowment of the Arts Award for “American Masterpieces Chamber Music” which featured the work of Ruth Crawford Seeger in public concerts as well as in Boston Public high school artist residencies on “Music, Poetry, and American Identity.” Goodwin has curated numerous interactive performance events for school-age children in Dorchester and the City of Boston since the early 1990s.

Goodwin has performed solo recitals and has performed as a chamber musician throughout the eastern United States and California. She has also been heard in WGBH, WCRB, and WUMB radio broadcasts. Goodwin holds 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 teachers were Edith Oppens, Barbara Shearer, and Alexander Lieberman. Other mentors include Karl Ulrich Schnabel, Gyorgy Sebok, and Eugene Lehner.