Elaine Hoffman-Watts

Who is Elaine Hoffman-Watts?

Elaine Hoffman-Watts is a klezmer drummer from Philadelphia, USA. She comes from a line of klezmer musicians from what is now Ukraine and is the daughter of Jacob Hoffman, a klezmer xylophone player and bandleader from the 1920s who also played with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Ballets Russes Orchestra. Her daughter Susan Watts is a klezmer trumpet player and an important figure in the klezmer revival.

In 1954 she was the first woman Percussionist to be accepted and graduate from the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia.

Since 1998 she has been a regular percussion teacher at Klezkamp, and she has taught percussion in the Philadelphia area since the mid-1960s. In 2007 she won a National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Award.