Perry Goldstein (born 1952 in New York City, New York) studied at the University of Illinois, UCLA, and Columbia University, from which he received a doctorate in music composition in 1986. His principal teachers were Herbert Brün, Mario Davidovsky, Ben Johnston, Chou Wen-Chung, and Paul Zonn. Specializing in chamber music, he has written several works for saxophone under the auspices of the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and their students. These include the saxophone quartets Blow! (1993) (declared “a raw-boned tour-de-force” by the Buffalo News, available on Challenge Records), Fault Lines (1998) (United States Military Academy Recordings), and Motherless Child Variations (2002) (New Dynamic Records). Other works for saxophone include Fault Lines (1998) for saxophone and piano written for Arno Bornkamp and Ivo Janssen, Against the Grain (1999) for the Aurelia Saxophone Quartet and Slagwerkgroep den Haag, Noir (1999) for alto saxophone, viola (or bassoon), and piano for Trio Chiaroscuro (Crystal Records). More recent works include two saxophone quartets, Pieces of Elsewhere (2005) for the Aurelia, West Point, and Prism Saxophone Quartets, Filaments of Yesterday (2005) for the Capitol Saxophone Quartet, Heaven (2005) for Arno Bornkamp and Ivo Janssen, and Sonata for Soprano Saxophone and Piano (2006) for Joseph Lulloff and Jun Okada. Goldstein has been a member of the music faculty of Stony Brook University since 1992, and currently serves as the Director of the College of Arts, Culture, and Humanities.
