 Aaron Goldberg was born in Boston to Alfred Goldberg, a biochemist, and Joan Helpern Goldberg, a hematologist, and has one younger sister, Julie Goldberg.He began taking piano lessons at 7, and started playing jazz when he was 14.As a high school student at Milton Academy, Goldberg was introduced to improvisation by Bob Sinicrope, the founder of Milton's Jazz Program, and at 16 studied with saxophonist Jerry Bergonzi.