Diana Golden

Education

D.M.A. Cello Performance, Rutgers University

M.A . Cello Performance with Distinction, Royal Academy of Music in London

B.A. English,  from Cornell University

B.M. Cello Performance, San Francisco Conservatory of Music

Biography

New York City-based cellist Diana Golden is a multidimensional artist who performs with chamber ensembles, symphony orchestras, and musical theater and opera companies. Her expertise ranges from traditional to newly composed repertoire with a special focus on performing and writing about Haitian art music. 

 Highlights of recent performances include concerts with Infinity Song, The Irish Tenors, and Michael Bolton as well as regular engagements with New York Gilbert & Sullivan Players, Distinguished Concerts International New York, the Phoenicia International Festival of the Voice, the Hudson Valley Philharmonic, and as principal cellist with the Parlando orchestra. Golden has performed in prestigious venues throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, such as Carnegie Hall, David Geffen Hall at Lincoln Center, Brooklyn’s National Sawdust, the Colburn School of Music, Symphony Space's Bar Thalia, Spectrum NYC, San Francisco’s Davies Symphony Hall, the United Nations, Montreal’s Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, and St. David’s Hall in Cardiff, UK. She is featured on concept albums for the musicals Goodbye New York, Song of Solomon, and Platinum Girls by Andrew Beall, recorded on Broadway Records, and the YMCA commercial "The Y: One Number Different."

An active chamber musician, Golden is a member of the Golden Williams Duo with violist Gregory Williams, which focuses on collaborations with living composers and has premiered works such as Clarissa Baquiran’s ŠĮŃGKÏŁ, David Wolfson’s Mood Swings and Michael Kosch's Sassetta, and with the Red Door Chamber Players, a nine-member ensemble based on Long Island. She founded the Boston-based Firebrand Concert Series and performed and served as Artistic Director for three seasons.

As an educator, Golden has coached chamber music and taught private lessons for cellists of all levels and ages. She is currently a Lecturer of Music for Washington College, and a faculty member for the Before School Music program at the Ethical Culture Fieldston School. She is the Founder and Director of the Red Door Chamber Partners Educational Program and a member of the cello faculty for Mountain Springs Music Festival in northern Utah. In 2011, Golden began working for Open Access to Music Education for Children, a music center for Boston’s Haitian community run by Youth and Family Enrichment Services. While working with cello students who had left Haiti after the 2010 earthquake, Golden found that learning music, including traditional Haitian folk songs, helped them to adjust to their life changes and deal with trauma they had experienced. This experience inspired her nearly decade-long interest in Haitian art music.

Her article “Staging the Nation Through Mizik Savant: Art Music of the Haitian Diaspora” was published in the Fall 2018 issue of The Journal of Haitian Studies, Vol. 24, No. 2. Along with Shawn Chang, she presented lecture recitals on Haitian music for cello and piano at the 5th Symposium of Caribbean Art Music held at the Conservatorio de Música de Puerto Rico and at Montreal’s Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, hosted by the Société de recherche et de diffusion de la musique haïtienne. In 2012, Golden served as a Guest Teaching Artist for the summer program at the École de Musique Dessaix-Baptiste in Jacmel, Haiti.

Golden’s new album Tanbou Kache (Hidden Drum), out October 2020 on New Focus Recordings, highlights Haitian cello and piano music by Justin Élie, Werner Jaegerhuber, Frantz Casséus, Carmen Brouard, Julio Racine, Daniel Bernard Roumain, and Jean “Rudy” Perrault. Recorded with pianist Shawn Chang, the album celebrates Haiti’s rich and fascinating tradition of art music and outlines the stylistic and chronological trajectory of key composers within this tradition from the 20th century to the present.

Golden holds a Doctorate of Musical Arts in Cello Performance from Rutgers University, where she completed her doctoral research on Haitian art music. She also holds a Master of Arts in Cello Performance with Distinction from the Royal Academy of Music in London, a Bachelor of Arts degree in English from Cornell University, and a Bachelor of Music degree in Cello Performance from San Francisco Conservatory of Music. Golden’s primary teachers were Jean Michel Fonteneau, Mark Kosower, Felix Schmidt, and Jonathan Spitz. Golden has also received instruction from renowned artists including Bernard Greenhouse, Colin Carr, Fred Sherry, Steven Doane, Alan Harris, Matt Haimovitz, Philip Mueller, and Sadao Harada. She was awarded a Hill and Hollow Artist Residency in 2013, John Baker Career Development Award, Sir Stapley Educational Trust Award, and a Bursary Award from the Royal Academy of Music. Learn more at www.goldencello.com.