The Fabulous Shpielkes, featuring Elaine Hoffman Watts (drums) and her daughter Susan Watts (trumpet), include some of the best Klezmer musicians from Philly to New York City. From the slide of the trombone to the tickle of the ivories, this band will be sure to make your Shpielkes Fabulous!

Elaine and Susan, third and fourth generation members of Philadelphia's prominent Hoffman family musical dynasty, are internationally celebrated for their musical skill, ingenuity and cultural knowledge. Elaine is a winner of the National Endowment for the Arts' prestigious Heritage Fellowship Award, and has been named a musical national treasure. This mother-and-daughter team are preserving their musical traditions while creating new sounds and bringing in new voices. They are passing their heritage to a fifth generation of shpielkes -- even the grandchildren play klezmer!

Audiences the world over agree: these musicians are truly fabulous. It is a joy and honor to hear these genuine klezmorim, who are among the world's best, shpeil (play) the music they love the most.

Q & A Session

Just after intermission, Dr. Simon Bronner will lead a question and answer period. Dr. Bronner is Lead Scholar at the Holocaust and Jewish Studies Center, Penn State Harrisburg.

...with Old World Folk Band opening

The Old World Folk Band was founded in 1982 and devotes its energies to preserving the sounds and spirit of klezmer music, Yiddish theater songs and the indigenous folk music of Eastern Europe. Based in Harrisburg, PA, the Old World Folk Band performs extensively in the mid-Atlantic region, from upstate New York to Virginia.

York Jewish Community Center

2000 Hollywood Drive, York, PA 17403 Directions

Concert: 4:00pm

A FREE EVENT!

Elaine Hoffman Watts

Born in 1932, Elaine Watts is a third-generation klezmer musician, and a critically important, feisty, and enduring link to a particular Philadelphia-style Jewish klezmer sound. Rooted in Ukranian and Romanian traditions, Elaine has mastered these Eastern European Jewish ritual and celebratory musical styles. Working actively in Philadelphia in the early years of this century, the Hoffman family and other Philadelphia Jewish musicians shaped a Jewish American music reflecting the influences of their homeland as well as the musical culture of Philadelphia. Elaine's drumming anchors this sound.

Her grandfather, Joseph Hoffman, a cornet player, came to Philadelphia circa 1904. Hoffman taught other family members klezmer music he learned as a child in Eastern Europe: horas, Russian shers, polkas, mazurkas, Russian kamaratskies and kazatskies, czardas, waltzes, freilachs, bulgars, and tunes named after towns: Kishinev, Bogopolier (the town the family came from, near Odessa). Played by the Hoffman family and other musicians at Jewish weddings, and in the parties that followed, this music became part of a distinctly Philadelphia klezmer repertoire.

Ms. Watts' father was Jacob Hoffman, a great klezmer drummer and xylophonist. A versatile musician who knew many styles of music, he also played xylophone with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Born in 1899, he came to Philadelphia with his father and followed in the family tradition, making influential recordings in the first half of the century with the Kandel Orchestra, a well-known Philadelphia klezmer group.

Elaine Watts is the first woman percussionist who was accepted at Curtis Institute of Music, from which she graduated in 1954 She has performed and taught for more than sixty years, working in symphonies, theaters, and schools. Despite her skills and family heritage, when she was young Ms. Watts was seldom given opportunities to perform in working klezmer wedding bands. From the beginning they didn't want to hire a girl drummer — not even Jacob Hoffman's daughter.

Ms. Watts began performing klezmer actively over 10 years ago, starting with the group KlezMs, an all-female ensemble which included her daughter Susan Watts on trumpet. Now Elaine performs with the Fabulous Shpielkes and Klezmer artists from around the world. She is a featured soloist, lecturer and educator at festivals, schools and arts associations. She has performed and has been a teaching mainstay for over a decade at KlezKamp in New York and KlezKanada North of Montreal.

Elaine is featured on her CD, I Remember Klezmer, which draws on and documents her amazing family musical tradition which she has passed on to her daughter and grandsons. She is also featured on the CD produced by Living Traditions, Elaine Hoffman Watts, A Living Tradition, as well as Fidl with Alicia Svigals of the Klezmatics, So-Calleds Ghetto Blaster, Hip-hop Chasene and Susan Watts Hartsklop.

Among her most recent awards are a Pew Fellowship in the Arts and the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts Heritage Fellowship award for Klezmer drumming. Who would have thought that a Jewish grandmother would be all of a sudden a National Treasure!

Susan Watts

Trumpeter and vocalist Susan Watts represents the youngest generation of an exciting klezmer dynasty that reaches back to the Jewish Ukraine of the 19th century, beginning with her great grandfather, bandleader and composer, Joseph Hoffman.

A fourth generation musician, Susan is the sole living purveyor of a klezmer style trumpet and sound which electrified Jewish American audiences for decades. Her engaging voice and one of a kind vocal style will carry you through a full gamut of emotions, will inspire you and send chills up your spine. Audiences around the world are dazzled and delighted by Susan's unique virtuosity.

Daughter of the great Klezmer drummer Elaine Hoffman Watts and granddaughter of the renowned xylophonist and percussionist Jacob Hoffman, Susan is continuing her family's legacy. Her repertoire is comprised of tunes that were handed down to her by her great-grandfather, grandfather and mother. This rich repertoire includes many original songs written for weddings, family members and joyous occasions.

In addition to performing with a variety of noted Klezmer musicians from around the world, Susan has shared the stage with Mandy Patinkin at Carnegie Hall, Dudu Fischer, Theodore Bikel, Claire Barry, Boban Markovic, So-Called, Alicia Svigals, Margot Leverett, Henkus Netsky, and The Klezmer Conservatory Band, among others. Susan is a member of The Fabulous Shpielkes, Frank London's Klezmer Brass All-Stars, Mikveh, and The Klez Dispensers.

Recently, she scored and recorded the soundtrack for the award winning film Breath, and recorded the soundtrack for a documentary on Philadelphia klezmer, A Joyful Noise. Susan teaches at klezmer festivals, is an ambassador for women's rights around the world, and loves good coffee, fine vodka, singing and playing her trumpet.