While a student, Mr. Friedman was a singer as well as a manager of various contemporary music groups. However, the first concert he ever produced was that of a recorder player from Amsterdam in 1969. Following his graduation from Sonoma State University where he received his degree in psychology and education, he went on to study Indian music at the Ali Akbar Kahn School of Music. From there, he went on to study and work with Anna Halprin doing music for the Trance Dance, and later also worked with the Society for Eastern Art, all the while working with his grandfather house-managing theaters and concessions.

He went on to establish one of the largest concert artist series in the West, presenting San Francisco debuts of the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, the Prague Madrigal Antiqua, the Black Light Theater of Prague, the Jose Limon Dance Company, Barry Tuckwell, the Batsheva Dance Company, and numerous other musical ensembles, theatre and dance companies. In 1973 Mr. Friedman started one of the first early music concert series in the country. In San Francisco he also co-produced the long-running romantic comedy which opened the Theater on the Square, Talley's Folly, as well as Caryl Churchill's biting comedy Cloud Nine, Neil Simon's Biloxi Blues, A.R. Gurney's Love Letters and Gareth Armstrong's Shylock.

His artist management firm represents and tours both nationally and internationally such prominent companies as Magnificat, Shakespeare Revue from London, Rick Miller's MacHomer and Bigger Than Jesus, classical pianist Angela Au, the Moscow Classical Ballet, composer/musician Terry Riley, guitarist Gyan Riley, beat-boxing Yuri Lane, Gareth Armstrong's Shylock, and tenor Saimir Pirgu.