Biography

Pianist María Pérez-Goodman was born in San Juan, Puerto Rico where she received her early musical training. She was a student of Lizzette Rivera and Professor Cecilia Talavera at the Puerto Rico Conservatory of Music where she was in the Advanced Music Program for High School Students. At age 15, Mrs. Pérez-Goodman won a scholarship to the prestigious Eastman School of Music where she earned a Bachelor's of Music degree in Piano Performance with Distinction. She earned her Master's and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from the University of Washington in Seattle. Her doctoral dissertation was on American pianist/composer Louis Moreau Gottschalk and his Caribbean-based compositions.

Mrs. Pérez-Goodman has participated in several prestigious summer music festivals including Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, North Carolina, Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California and Master Classes International's Piano Symposium in Los Angeles.  Her teachers include André Watts, David Burge, Rebecca Penneys, Aube Tzerko, Douglas Carrington, Neal O'Doan, Jerome Lowenthal, Menahem Pressler, Alexander Slobodyanik, Eteri Andjaparidze, and chamber music instructor Zvi Zeitlin.

As soloist, Mrs. Pérez-Goodman has performed numerous recitals and a diverse repertoire of concerti with several orchestras. Her recent debut with the Orquesta Sinfónica de Puerto Rico was received with critical acclaim for her "captivating" and "bold" performances of Mendelssohn's Concerto in G minor and Gottschalk's Grande Tarantelle. Other orchestral solo appearances include the Claremont Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra, Puerto Rico Conservatory Orchestra, Beach Cities Symphony and the Hour of Power Orchestra of the Crystal Cathedral. Her performances of the Rachmaninoff Second Piano Concerto and Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with the Crystal Cathedral Hour of Power Orchestra have been seen by an estimated 20 million viewers in 190 countries.

Her schedule of solo recitals has included performances in Spain, Puerto Rico, Washington, New York, London, and California. She has been a featured musical guest in several television programs and live radio talk shows. As a collaborative musician, Mrs. Pérez-Goodman's work has included performances with Martin Chalifour, Concertmaster of the LA Philharmonic, Lev Polyakin, Assistant Concertmaster of the Cleveland Orchestra, Tenor Daniel Rodriguez, Irish Tenor Ronan Tynan, British Pop singer Izzy, arranger Tom Scott, film composer John Debney, and world renowned Chinese Erhu player Ma XioaHui.