After an adventurous escape from his native country, he moved to the United States in 1950, where he attended the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), attaining degrees in musicology and political science.
He became professor of music at California State University, Long Beach, a position he held for over thirty years.
Musafia also published numerous articles in Southern California newspapers, most of which were analytic music critiques.
He has concertized in Moscow, Frankfurt (during the Shostakovich Festival), Salzburg, London, Bucharest, Budapest, Pforzheim, Stresa, Cremona, Edinburgh, New York, Milan, Washington, Boston, Los Angeles (as Artistic Director of the Shostakovich Festival) and in many other locations.
[citation needed] His first marriage was to Pianist Beverly Carmen (1928-) (Dec 31, 1954- 1961), they shared a love for Shostakovich during a time when UCLA was focused on Germanic music and composers.