(photo by Jim Barcus)
The beloved violinist has been playing locally and internationally for more than four decades
She’s not a social media influencer. She doesn’t have a website. And even though she doesn’t self-promote — or even talk about herself too much — violinist Susan Goldenberg, a member of the Kansas City Symphony for more than 40 years, has developed a devoted following in Kansas City, with her upbeat demeanor, community-minded philosophy and infectious joy in music making.
“She is beloved in the musical arts community,” said Christopher Kelts, director of orchestras at UMKC Conservatory. Kelts, who is also music director/conductor of the Kansas City Civic Orchestra, Kinnor Philharmonic Orchestra and Saint Joseph Symphony, has known Goldenberg for well over a decade.
In addition to her post at the Kansas City Symphony, Goldenberg is partner with her pianist brother William Goldenberg in the world-traveling Goldenberg Duo and an engaged member of the Kansas City community, volunteering with nonprofit organizations to help disadvantaged populations.
Growing up in Cleveland, she developed a love of music from her parents. Her mother Helen played piano; her father David was an amateur violinist. She and her brother took lessons and music classes at the Music Settlement. “Our mother was so happy when we were playing together,” said Goldenberg.
Goldenberg’s father was born in Kiev but immigrated to the United States when he was 3 years old, living in an Orthodox Jewish community in Boston. Her mother grew up in Cleveland. Though her family was not Orthodox, she experienced persecution as a Jewish person.
Goldenberg’s sense of social justice came from her mother, who from a young age couldn’t stand it when anyone of any race or nationality was persecuted. She enrolled in college in the South so she could help with the Black struggle for equality. But when World War II started, Helen Goldenberg enlisted in the military and was stationed in Europe, with the Women’s Air Transport Command, helping with medical supplies. “She saw what was happening in Germany and thought she had to do something, anything, that affected the human dignity of people,” said Goldenberg.
Goldenberg’s father learned about his future wife from a mutual friend while he was stationed in the army in Germany and, impressed, started a correspondence. After the war, they met and married, attended college on the G.I. Bill and then lived in Cleveland. David was a chemical engineer and Helen was a social worker. (For 20 years, she was executive director of the American Cancer Society’s Lake County chapter).
Despite her father’s concerns about his children trying to make their livings as musicians, both Goldenberg and her brother set out on music careers. She attended Indiana University, studying with Tadeusz Wroński and Franco Gulli, then earned her master’s degree from Yale University.
Goldenberg’s international travels started with her first professional orchestra job with the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. “It was a wonderful experience … because it’s good to go to a different country and live there and work there,” said Goldenberg. She started a string quartet, took Spanish lessons, and attended services at the local synagogue. After two years in San Jose, she joined The Charlotte Symphony, in North Carolina.
Then, in 1980, she was hired by the Kansas City Philharmonic. But right after she moved to Kansas City, the orchestra went on strike. Goldenberg stuck it out, practicing four hours a day, taking lessons at UMKC, giving recitals and waitressing.
Her decision to see it through was partly because she liked Kansas City — “It’s just a friendly, beautiful place. I just got a nice feel coming here” — and partly because she follows the philosophy of neurologist and Holocaust survivor Viktor Frankl, who theorized that positivity is key in the search for meaning in life.
“I was determined, and I’m a pretty determined person, to stick it out, whatever happened, make the best of it.”
She did stick it out, and, in 1982, she joined the newly formed Kansas City Symphony, one of a handful of current musicians who have been there since the beginning.
“I’m glad I did because every year got better and better.” She served under every music director and performed with some of the greatest musicians of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. She has great admiration for their current music director, Matthias Pintscher, who she said has a “sparkling vision” for the organization.
She has also performed with the Kinnor Philharmonic since its founding in 2012 and was the featured soloist in 2013 with Ernest Bloch’s “Baal Shem Suite: Three Pictures of Hassidic Life.” “She drew a massive crowd and played beautifully — a testament to her stature in the Greater Kansas City musical fabric,” said Kelts.
Along with her orchestral work, Goldenberg performs locally and around the world with her brother, William, Distinguished Teaching Professor and Head of Keyboard Studies at Northern Illinois University. They’ve played together since college but officially started the Goldenberg Duo more than 45 years ago.
Locally, they’ve performed at Johnson County Community College, Kansas City Musical Club, Bishop Spencer Place, Village Shalom, Kansas City Kansas Public Library, Diastole, William Jewell College, and others; nationally from Hawaii and Alaska to Washington, D.C. (the Smithsonian American Art Museum); and internationally in China, Japan, Australia, New Zealand (Te Papa Museum), Germany, Austria (Sigmund Freud University), England, Paris (American Cathedral), Budapest, Norway (Edvard Grieg’s home, Troldhaugen), Sweden, Denmark and Canada.
“Susie has a wonderful, rich, warm, lyrical tone and sense of rubato and timing,” said her brother. “Intuitively, we mostly seem to be in sync with our interpretation and expression of music by many different composers.” Typically, on tour they’ll perform work by American composers and work from the region where they are traveling.
“I treasure my time with my brother,” said Goldenberg. “It doesn’t feel like work. We just enjoy playing together.”
Along with her musical endeavors, Goldenberg volunteers her time at numerous charitable institutions. Many Thanksgivings and Christmases have seen her at the Salvation Army soup kitchen. She has been involved in Big Brothers Big Sisters and The Children’s Place, and she currently volunteers at the Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired.
During the pandemic, she started performing on her porch and she still does that from time to time. “People think music is healing, which sounds like an overused phrase, but it resonates. However we reach people, it’s important in this city.”
In whatever capacity — section violinist, chamber musician or helpful neighbor — Goldenberg is a treasure, with her infectious smile, unflagging joie de vivre and determination to “keep playing.” As Kelts said, “The world, musically and in general, is better off with Susie Goldenberg in it.”
