William Goldstein headed the jury in the first competition in "Instant Music Composition" in well over 100 years at the Transatlantyk Festival in Poznan Poland in August 2011. He gives Master Classes and recitals in The Art of "Instant Composition", creating compositions in real time in front of the audience. Some of the most famous practitioners of instant composition are Bach, Mozart, Handel, Scarlatti, Lizt, Chopin, Gershwin...and more recently Keith Jarrett. Improvising since the age of 4, Goldstein has the ability to sit at a piano and create instant compositions. Unlike Jazz improv which is built around an existent structure, he starts with nothing and creates a complete piece, with form and structure....from scratch.

He improvises ballets with dancers, and creates musical conversations with singers. He scores short films in concert, playing from the first frame of picture, as he watches the film with the audience for the first time. When the film has finished, there exists a complete score.

NPR Here & Now Interview with Robin Young discussing Instant Composition with William Goldstein

Collaborative Composition - Reviewed by Fanfare Magazine

Brushstrokes: The Intersection of Art & Music - Reviewed by Fanfare Magazine

Remembering Mariupol - Reviewed by Fanfare Magazine

Goldstein in Tallinn- Reviewed by Fanfare Magazine

Musical Portraits: An International Collection - Reviewed by Fanfare Magazine

His Solo Piano Albums Muses, Innocence Soul Of An Actor, First Impressions and Isn't It Romantic, are unusual collections of improvised compositions. In Soul Of An Actor, the first three notes of every composition were selected by each individual actor on the album. With A Life In 3 Notes all but one of the compositions, or musical portraits are based on three notes chosen by the subject. Similarly in Musical Portraits: An Internation Collection, in addition to three note musical portraits, one composition is a musical response to a book, another , a musical response to a "scent". Muses, another collection of mostly musical portraits, was selected by the Spotify Editorial board and featured on its new Classical release playlist. In Instant Composition, Goldstein affirms that he is indeed Continuing the Tradition of Mozart!

"What separates these impromptus from most contemporary improvisation is that Mr. Goldstein's improvisations, like the classic impromptus, are really "instant composition". They all have form, shape and developed themes, spontaneously created."