He began piano lessons not long thereafter when his father, himself an amateur musician, noticed the boy attempting to play Beethoven’s Moonlight Sonata by ear.
Rose, in turn, introduced Golub to violinist Isaac Stern; in 1979, the two received considerable international attention as the first major Western musicians to undertake an extended recital tour of China after the Cultural Revolution.
Not long thereafter, Golub, violinist Mark Kaplan, and cellist Colin Carr formed the Golub-Kaplan-Carr Trio, a well-respected and extensively-recorded chamber group, which won the AFIM Indie award for best classical ensemble in 1995 in honor of its recording of Smetana and Tchaikowsky piano trios on the Arabesque label.
Among the organizations for which he served in that capacity were the Padua Chamber Orchestra, with which he toured the United States in 1999, and the Hong Kong Philharmonic.
He also conducted opera—both on records and at the Festival della Valle d'Itria in Martina Franca, Italy—displaying particular interest in reviving works outside the standard repertory.