Raised in CherryHill, New Jersey, Michael learned to read music at an early age and took piano lessons during his childhood. When he was twenty, his father gave him a used clarinet that he had purchased at a garage sale. Michael has been playing clarinet ever since.

A student of Western Mass local woodwind legends George Baker and Lynn Klock, Michael draws inspiration from stars of Jazz’s Swing Era, such as Artie Shaw and Benny Goodman. And he reveres more recent clarinetists Chuck Hedges, Allan Vaché, and Buddy DeFranco.

Michael performs on the clarinet and the bass clarinet. Where the clarinet is perhaps the ultimate swing era instrument, the bass clarinet is a superb vehicle for blues and ballads. Michael’s choice of music is heavily weighted toward the American Songbook, especially the repertoire of Frank Sinatra, Duke Ellington, and Cole Porter.

Michael Favala Goldman has performed with small combos around the Pioneer Valley for the past fifteen years. With Now’s the Time Jazz Sextet or with the Favala Jazz Trio or Quartet, he has appeared at numerous house parties, festivals, and venues such as First Night Northampton, the Northampton Center for the Arts, and Luthier’s Co-op.