Clarinetist and composer Ben Goldberg grew up in Denver, Colorado, and received degrees from the University of California and Mills College. He was a pupil of the eminent clarinetist Rosario Mazzeo, and studied with both Steve Lacy and Joe Lovano. In a March 2007 article in the San Francisco Bay Area magazine The Monthly, Andrew Gilbert heralded Ben Goldberg as “a dauntless musical explorer who has played a central role in the Bay Area’s improvised music scene for more than two decades.