REMEMBERING HARRIS GOLDMAN
by Myron Rosenblum, June, 2011

Harris Goldman and I met during the summer of 1950 at the summer music school of Harold Berkley in Harrison, Maine. I was studying violin then, had just switched teachers and was experiencing new technical woes and demands with my new teacher. Harris took me under his wing and was most helpful with my violin studies then. When I was drafted in October, 1956, I knew that Harris was already in the 7ASO and he was kind enough to make the contact with Ling Tung, conductor, so that my post-basic training assignment was made easier. I arrived in Stuttgart-Vaihingen around March, 1957 when the orchestra was on a French tour. Harris was the concertmaster then and we overlapped for a month or two before he returned to the states and civilian life. Over the next years, we kept our friendship, Harris in Los Angeles and I in New York City. At the 50th Reunion in 2001 (Lancaster, NH), Harris and I and a few other string players (Don Caldwell, Dan Barach, Joe Paladino) got together to rehearse and give a mini-concert of music by F.A. Hoffmeister (Quartet for violin, 2 violas and cello) and Mozart (Quintet in C for 2 violins, 2 violas and cello). Harris was a "thinking" and serious musician, not easily accepting of mediocrity in music-making. He would much rather work at and on a piece to make it meaningful than to just "read" it through. He was a good friend and colleague, always interested in my career and family. I will miss him greatly as friend and musician.