Edwin Franko Goldman - bio

Edwin Franko Goldman was born in Louisville Kentucky on January 1, 
1878.  He was the second of five children in a musical family.  When 
Edwin was nine years old, his father died and his mother was forced 
to put the children in an orphanage while she established herself as 
a piano teacher.  Edwin was a popular student and began to study the 
trumpet.  At the age of fourteen, Edwin received a scholarship to 
attend the National Conservatory of Music.  Under the direction of 
Antonin Dvorak, he studied harmony and continued his trumpet lessons. 
By age 21, he had established himself as a virtuoso cornetist and was 
playing first trumpet in the Metropolitan Orchestra.

Goldman's career as a conductor became evident soon after he founded 
and assumed leadership of the New York Military Band in 1911.  The 
band's name was soon after changed to the Goldman Band becoming one 
of the greatest bands in history.  Mostly supported by the Guggenheim 
Foundation, the summer concert series in the parks of New York City 
drew enormous crowds throughout the band's reign.  Edwin died in New 
York City on February 21, 1956.  He was an aggressive, preserving, 
idealistic, and self-disciplined person whose achievements in band 
administration are still influencing bands today.


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