His parents were Jewish immigrants from Bessarabia. Some of his ances- tors were Klezmorim, or wandering musicians who performed in predominantly Jewish villages and small towns (Schtetl), particularly at weddings, banquets and dan- ces. The emotions expressed by their music ranges from melancholia and desperation to serenity and lust for life. Giora Feidman became the fourth generation to pursue his familv's rich musical tradition. His mother sang Yiddish songs, and his father taught him the basics of playing the clarinet. He later went through a formal musical training, where he discovered not only Klezmer, but alsoSchubert and Mozart. In Germany, Feidman became famous in 1984 when stage director Peter Zadek asked him to star in the musical Ghetto by Joshua Sobol, alongside the Israeli actress andsinger Esther Ofarim. Then Hollywood noticed him. In 1994, along with the violinist Itzak Perlman, he played the Oscar-winning music of Steven Spielberg's Holocaust drama, Schindler's List. Despite his passion for klezmer music, Feidman can play all genres. He constantly creates new fusions of jazz, soul, classical music or tango, the music ofhis hometown Buenos Aires in Argentina. In 2001, he was awarded the Federal Cross of Merit in Germany for his particular ef- forts to reconciliate Germans and Jews. In 2005, he performed at the World Youth Day ni Cologne attended by Pope Benedict XVI, as wel as 800,000 people.