Brandon Goldberg
Biography Brandon Goldberg
Brandon Goldberg
has been playing piano and making music since he was three years old. Critics have praised his “unassailable technique, advanced harmonic understanding, a deep sense of swing and, most impressively, a clarity and plethora of ideas executed to near-perfection.” – Downbeat Magazine
Goldberg has performed at leading jazz festivals across the country including the Newport Jazz Festival, San Francisco (SFJazz), PDX Jazz, Litchfield, Twin Cities, and Caramoor. He has played in New York’s most prominent jazz clubs including Dizzy’s Club, Mezzrow, and Birdland Theater as well as The Side Door in Old Lyme, and the Keystone Korner in Baltimore.
Goldberg is a 2024 YoungArts Winner with Distinction, a semifinalist in the 2023 Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz International Piano Competition and youngest recipient of the 2022 ASCAP Herb Alpert Young Jazz Composer Award.
Most recently, Goldberg appeared on Good Morning America and Live with Kelly and Mark accompanying Katharine McPhee performing songs from her new album with David Foster called Christmas Songs.
Goldberg will be celebrating the release of his third album, Brandon Goldberg Trio Live at Dizzy’s, at the Kravis Center on March 22, 2024. This album, recorded with Ben Wolfe on bass and Aaron Kimmel on drums, presents the trio’s modernized take on the music of the great piano trios of the 1950s and 1960s, while still giving respect to the pianists and traditions of those by whom Goldberg was inspired, including Ahmad Jamal, Red Garland, Oscar Peterson, and Sonny Clark
Goldberg has released two other albums as a leader. In Good Time, released in fall 2021 features the late, great drummer Ralph Peterson, Jr., with Stacy Dillard on saxophones, Josh Evans on trumpet and Luques Curtis on bass. In Good Time showcases five original compositions and five standards, garnering rave reviews from London Jazz News and four stars from Downbeat Magazine, All About Jazz, and Jazzwise.
His debut album, LET’S PLAY!, released in 2019, features Ben Wolfe on bass, Donald Edwards on drums and special guest Marcus Strickland on tenor saxophone. The album has three original compositions and six standards and reached top seven on the Jazz Week charts and also earned four stars from Downbeat Magazine. Both albums were recognized as Top Albums of the year in 2021 and 2019, respectively.
Goldberg has also written original music for television and his compositions were featured in the first season of Lawmen: Bass Reeves, episodes four and six.
In his hometown of Miami, Florida, Goldberg has been a featured performer at the South Beach Jazz Festival, Jazz Roots Series at the Adrienne Arsht Center, the Miami International Piano Festival, FAENA Summer Jazz Series, and the Miami Symphony Orchestra.
In 2018 and 2019, The Miami Symphony Orchestra commissioned Goldberg to write two original compositions for piano and orchestra, “Surroundings” and “Rhapsody in f minor”, which were both performed live and recorded by MISO and received high praise and accolades.
Goldberg has participated in the prestigious Vail Jazz Workshop, National Youth Symphony (NYO Jazz) and Next Generation Jazz Orchestra. He worked with great jazz leaders like John Clayton, Sean Jones and Gerald Clayton.
Goldberg was a featured performer at TEDxYouthMiami, TEDxBocaRaton and TEDxCoconutGrove conferences. He also works closely with the Jazz Foundation of America (JFA) and performed at their annual Gala – A Great Night in Harlem at the famous Apollo Theater where he presented McCoy Tyner with his Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.
At a young age, Goldberg had poignant break-through moments on national television in Seasons 1 and 2 of NBC’s Little Big Shots, The Steve Harvey Show and the Harry Connick, Jr. Show.
