Edwin Franko Goldman

Edwin Franko Goldman (b. Louisville, Kentucky, January 1, 1878 – d. New York City, February 21, 1956) – Bandmaster, composer, and trumpet player. The Goldman family moved to Evansville in 1879 and shortly thereafter to Terre Haute, where his father David Franko taught linguistics at the newly-opened Coates College for Women; the elder Franko later became the town’s Justice of the Peace. Shortly after his father died tragically of an aorta aneurysm in 1886, his mother, Selma Franko Goldman (a child prodigy on the piano) moved the family to New York City, where Edwin studied cornet at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and later attended the National Conservatory of Music. In 1893, he began playing trumpet for the Metropolitan Opera House, and in 1911, he founded the New York Military Band, which evolved into the famous Goldman Band (1918-2005). In 1929, he founded the American Bandmasters Association and served as the second honorary life president after John Philip Sousa. As a composer, Franko has contributed over 150 works, many featuring cornet.