Rate My Professor Randall Goldberg

Dr. Randall Goldberg is Associate Professor of Music and Director of the School of Music at California State University, Fullerton, where he has served since 2022. Prior to this appointment, he was Associate Professor of Music (Musicology) and Director of the Dana School of Music at Youngstown State University. Goldberg holds a B.M. in Guitar Performance from The University of Texas, an M.M. in Guitar Performance from the New England Conservatory of Music, and a Ph.D. in Musicology from Indiana University, earned in 2011. His doctoral dissertation, titled "Clerics and Cavaliers at the Dawn of Modern Music: The Zarlino-Galilei Dispute," examined historical debates in early modern music theory.

Goldberg's research specializes in the music of Jewish immigrants in America, particularly how domestic musical practices responded to traumatic events like the 1903 Kishineff Pogrom. He presented a major public lecture on this subject, "The Kishineff Massacre and Domestic Musical Practice in America," at the Library of Congress in 2017, analyzing works such as Herman Shapiro's piano piece "Kishineff Massacre" (1904) and the Yiddish descriptive overture "Die Kishinov Pogrom" (1924) recorded by Nathaniel Shilkret. His scholarly contributions include writings in Musica Judaica, Journal of Jewish Identities, and Notes, as well as entries for the C.P.E. Bach: The Complete Works edition (Packard Humanities Institute) and the Oxford Dictionary of the Middle Ages. Goldberg hosted the Conference on Jewish Music and Jewish Identity in Youngstown in 2014 and chaired sessions at the 2023 American Musicological Society/Society for Music Theory Joint Annual Meeting. At CSUF, he contributes to the university's strategic planning committee and serves as Secretary for the Jewish Faculty and Staff Association, underscoring his leadership in academic administration and community engagement.