Background information From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sidney Beckerman (1919-2007) was an influential klezmer clarinet player. He learned the style from his father Shloimke, who was himself a well known klezmer soloist. Sidney played Jewish weddings and celebrations in New York City and the Catskills throughout the 1930s. After World War II ended, he returned to New York and started working for the US Postal Service.

Upon his retirement in 1982, he was convinced by fellow klezmer musician Pete Sokolow to join the band Klezmer Plus!. A recording of this band in 1989 (with Howie Leess) was named an Outstanding Folk Recording by the Library of Congress.

Sidney was also a founding member of the klezmer music camp Klezkamp.

He was inducted into the People's Hall of Fame in February 1994.

Background information From www.allmusic.com/artist/sid-beckerman-mn

The son of influential klezmer clarinet player Sholymke Beckerman, Sid Beckerman continues to expand on his father's musical legacy. A teacher at Klez Kamp, a Yiddish folk arts program in the Catskill Mountains for more than a decade and a private instructor since the early '90s, Beckerman has shared his knowledge with scores of enthusiastic students, including the Klezmatics founding member Margot Leverett. As a member of Klezmer Plus!, Beckerman continues to reinterpret his father's repertoire with saxophonist Howie Leess, keyboardist Pete Sokolow, tenor banjo player Henry Sapoznik, and drummer Michael Spielzinger. A native of New York's South Bronx, Beckerman began his musical career at the age of 14. Except for a brief period during World War II, when he served as a radio operator in the United States Army, he supported himself as a full-time musician until the mid-'50s when he accepted a job as a post office clerk. Maintaining a low profile as a musician for nearly three decades, except for occasional weddings and bar mitzvahs, Beckerman successfully launched a comeback after retiring from the post office in 1984. Teaching at the first Klez Kamp in 1985, he remains one of the program's best-respected teachers. Beckerman was inducted into the People's Hall of Fame in February 1994.

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