Jeff Gitelman was born on February 5, 1982, to a Jewish family in Soviet-ruled Moldavia. He and his family emigrated from Chișinău in 1991 and moved to New Haven, Connecticut. His interest in music developed in his early childhood when he found a guitar in a trash can and his father refurbished it. He then learned to speak English through playing and listening to Western music, notably the Beatles.
Gitelman has worked in music education, serving on the panel of Music Industry Advisors at the 2015 Grammy Camp in Los Angeles, and conducting lectures and seminars on composition, production, music business, and performance. The camp works with young musicians throughout the U.S. In 2005, he co-founded the American Roots Music program, an initiative to teach young adults grades 1-12 the history of American music through performance and lecture. In 2015, he was inducted into his alma mater Amity High School's hall of fame. In 2016, Gitelman founded the Duality School of Music which began programming during the Fall 2017 semester at Amity High School.
