Susan Hoffman Watts

Trumpet player Susan Watts represents the youngest generation of an important klezmer dynasty that reaches back to the Jewish Ukraine of the 19th century, beginning with her great-grandfather, bandleader, composer, and cornet-player, Joseph Hoffman, who came to Philadelphia about 1904. The Hoffman family played for generations of Philadelphia-area Jewish weddings, and parties, and their music became part of a distinctly Philadelphia klezmer repertoire. Together with her mother, Klezmer drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts, Susan plays in a Philadelphia-based group, the Fabulous Shpielkehs and has recorded and performed with Hankus Netsky, Mikveh, Frank London's Klezmer All-Star Brass Band, among others.