Odessa Klezmer, under the direction of Ed Goldberg, brings the happy dance music of the Klezmirim music to mainstream America. The musicians have been playing klezmer for the last 18 years. Ed was brought up playing Eastern European and polka music in Elizabeth, NJ, on the road for 25 years touring with the band led by Jimmy Sturr, a 14-time Grammy award winning polka artist.

The band has played numerous fairs, festivals, gypsy affairs, weddings, bar mitzvahs, concertw, and dance dates throughout the NJ-NY-PA area, including Gracie Mansion and City Hall for Mayor Guiliani, and a tour of Israel. They play a variety of Eastern Europe, Ladino, and Middle Eastern music, and even a polka or czardas.

The Odessa core group includes leader Ed Goldberg, a professor of Computer Sciences at TCNJ, Middlesex County College and Burlington Cty College, playing accordion. Ed has performed at Carnegie Hall on four occasions and has made over 125 recordings of Polish, Ukrainian, Country, Israeli, and Klezmer dance music. Four of Ed's recordings have won Grammy Awards. In addition he does an occasional appearance with the Jimmy Sturr Band.

John Lesniak, a boyhood friend of Ed’s, is a local Toms River resident playing clarinet and saxophone. John played with the U.S. Navy Band in Washington, D.C., and has played with numerous polka bands.

Barbara Goldberg, a first-grade teacher in Trenton, who studied Middle Eastern music at the Jewish arts school in Manhattan, plays a Middle Eastern drum called a darbuqua.

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