Memorial at Heinz Hall to honor former PSO flutist

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette open to the public. PSO principal cellist Anne Martindale Williams and harpsichordist Justin Wallace will play as well.

Mr. Goldberg will also be honored at the Chicago Flute Club Flute Festival later this year.

“Bernie was an incredibly special person, a real legend in the flute world,” Ms. McGhee said. “He was probably the last flutist alive to have studied with [Georges] Barrere.”

Mr. Barrere is notable for bringing the Paris Conservatoire woodwind tradition to the United States in the early 1900s.

Born Jan. 27, 1923, in St. Louis, Mr. Goldberg studied at Juilliard with Marcel Moyse before joining the Cleveland Orchestra as principal flute in 1945. Two years later, he won the same position in the PSO under Fritz Reiner. He held his Pittsburgh title for 46 years, from 1946-93.

Mr. Goldberg was one of the founders of the National Flute Association as well as the organization’s first president. He also served a term as president of the Marcel Moyse Society, dedicated to preserving the memory and recordings of the preeminent French flutist, one of Mr. Goldberg’s teachers.

“He kept teaching and coaching youth orchestras up until the last year or two,” said Wendy Kumer, one of Mr. Goldberg’s former students and founder of the Flute Academy in Pittsburgh. “Bernie wanted to bring the flute into every home.”

According to Ms. Kumer and Craig Johnson, executive director of the Pittsburgh Youth Symphony Orchestra and another of Mr. Goldberg’s former students, Mr. Goldberg was known for his generosity and dedication to his students. He often sublet rooms of his house in Squirrel Hill to students in need and taught lessons free of charge.

“He taught hundreds of students to play musically. He was far more interested in a musical line or phrase than the mechanics or just teaching students how to win auditions,” Ms. Kumer said.

Mr. Goldberg is survived by his husband, Paul Alarcon, 74, of Piedmont, Ohio.