Otto Moritz David Goldschmidt (21 August 1829 – 24 February 1907) was a pianist, composer, conductor and educator, whose works included a piano concerto and other piano pieces, and an oratorio, Ruth, on a biblical theme, written for the Three Choirs Festival. From a prosperous mercantile family in Hamburg, he studied under Felix Mendelssohn at the Leipzig Conservatoire and quickly established himself as a pianist. Among the singers whom he accompanied was the soprano Jenny Lind, known as "the Swedish Nightingale". They toured together in 1851 and married in 1852, after which she insisted on being billed as "Madame Lind-Goldschmidt".

Although Goldschmidt's compositions were regarded as conventional, his work as a teacher and member of the boards of music institutions made him an important figure in British musical life in the latter part of the 19th century. He took British citizenship in 1861. He outlived his wife by twenty years, dying in London aged 77.

Goldschmidt was born on 21 August 1829 in Hamburg (now part of Germany, but then an independent city-state). His parents were Moritz David Goldschmidt and his wife Johanna, née Schwabe. Moritz was a prosperous merchant whose firm operated internationally, with branches in Britain as well as Germany; Johanna was an author and prominent social reformer. The couple had eight children, of whom Otto was the eldest. His mother was highly musical, and give him his first piano lessons. He was Jewish.

While still in Hamburg, Goldschmidt studied the piano and harmony with Friedrich Wilhelm Grund and Jacob Schmitt, and in 1843 he became one of the first students at the new Leipzig Conservatoire. For three years he studied there under Felix Mendelssohn, Hans von Bülow, Louis Plaidy and Moritz Hauptmann. While he was a student the singer Jenny Lind gave a concert at the Leipzig Gewandhaus for which the authorities withheld the free tickets usually available to students. Goldschmidt was elected by his peers to protest to the faculty, but was rebuffed. As he was financially able, he purchased a ticket, despite the high prices for the concert, and was greatly impressed by the singer's voice and artistry.

From 1846 to 1848 Goldschmidt taught and performed in Hamburg. In 1848 he was sent to Paris to study with Frédéric Chopin. He arrived in time to hear the composer's last Paris performance, given at the Salle Pleyel in February, but had not begun the intended studies with him when the French Revolution of 1848 broke out within days of the concert. Chopin departed for London, and Goldschmidt followed suit. At the time many leading musicians from the Continent were working in London, including Berlioz, Kalkbrenner, Liszt, Moscheles, Thalberg and Pauline Viardot and, importantly for Goldschmidt's career, Jenny Lind. She, always prominent in charitable work, had recruited fellow stars including Luigi Lablache and Giovanni Belletti for a fund-raising recital in July 1848 at the concert room of Her Majesty's Theatre. To accompany this prestigious line-up she engaged as pianist the nineteen-year-old Goldschmidt, to whom she is thought to have been introduced by Chopin.

In March 1849 Goldschmidt and Lind both appeared at two concerts in Sheffield and Nottingham, but did not perform together: Goldschmidt appeared as a soloist and as a duettist with Julius Benedict. He appeared in London again the same month in a concert for the Musical Union. The reviewer in Bell's Weekly Messenger wrote of him:

Goldschmidt performed in Hamburg and Leipzig, and in January 1850 he met Jenny Lind again at Lübeck. The memory of Mendelssohn was a bond between the two. He persuaded her to resume singing the lieder of Mendelssohn which, since his death in 1847, she had found emotionally impossible to perform.

In May 1851, at Lind's invitation, Goldschmidt travelled to New York City. She was nearing the end of a long American tour and her accompanist, Benedict, finding the pressure excessive, wished to return to Britain; Goldschmidt took over from him. The relationship between singer and pianist grew increasingly close, and they married in Boston, Massachusetts, on 5 February 1852. The service was performed according to the Episcopalian rite; Goldschmidt had been baptised into that faith shortly beforehand. The couple had two sons and a daughter. From the start of the marriage, Lind insisted on being billed as "Madame Lind-Goldschmidt".