Early Life and Education
Goldsmith, who was Jewish, was born 10 February 1929 in Los Angeles, California. His parents were Tessa (née Rappaport), an artist, and Morris Goldsmith, a structural engineer. He started playing piano at age six, but only "got serious" by the time he was eleven. At the age of thirteen he studied piano privately with legendary concert pianist and educator Jakob Gimpel (whom Goldsmith would later employ to perform piano solos in his score to The Mephisto Waltz) and by the age of sixteen he was studying both theory and counterpoint under Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, who also tutored such noteworthy composers and musicians as Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle, Herman Stein, André Previn, Marty Paich, and John Williams.
At the age of sixteen, Goldsmith saw the movie Spellbound (1945) in theaters and was inspired by the soundtrack by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa to pursue a career in music. Goldsmith later enrolled and attended the University of Southern California where he was able to attend courses by Rózsa, but dropped out in favor of a more "practical music program" at the Los Angeles City College. There he was able to coach singers, work as an assistant choral director, play piano accompaniment, and work as an assistant conductor.
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