BEN GOLDBERG
Clarinetist / Composer Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado. He received his undergraduate music degree from the University of California, Santa Cruz, and a Master of Arts in Composition from Mills College. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. In addition to composing for and playing in his new band Ben Goldberg School, he performs in the following groups: Go Home with Charlie Hunter, Ellery Eskelin, Ron Miles, and Scott Amendola, "A searching ensemble that welcomes lyrical improvisation while embracing the groove." (The New Yorker); Tin Hat; plays Monk; Myra Melford's Be Bread; Nels Cline's New Monastery; Clarinet Thing; and Afterlife Music Radio, an electro-acoustic quartet. Ben's group New Klezmer Trio "kicked open the door for radical experiments with Ashkenazi roots music." (San Francisco Chronicle)
Ben was named #1 Rising Star Clarinet in the 2011 Downbeat Critics' Poll. Recent awards include a Chamber Music America New Jazz Works commission, and commissions from San Francisco Friends of Chamber Music, the French American Cultural Exchange, the de Young Museum of Art in San Francisco, and the Aaron Copland Fund for Music.