Susan Hofer - Susan Hofer (2007)

Susan Hofer has been exciting audiences for the past 10 years. Beginning as a classical clarinetist, she developed a deep appreciation for traditional jazz vocalists like Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and contemporary singers like Diane Reeves and Kurt Elling. Combine this with her keen interest in outside-the-box creative improvised music, throw in her study of ethnomusicology, put it all in the blender to commingle and you have a style all her own. Audiences have enjoyed her performances in Chicago and outlying areas, and the great critical acclaim made listeners take notice. Her singing has appeared prominently in various newspapers, critics picks, and other feature articles. Her career has taken her to many of Chicago’s best live music venues, including the Hot House and the Drake Hotel, with regular appearances at Pops for Champagne and an invitation to perform at their Women in Jazz Festival. Susan has opened for the Mighty Blue Kings and has been featured on a statewide broadcast via Wisconsin Public Radio, local Madison, Wisconsin radio via the Mic 92.1, WORT 89.9 and heard on an internationally-distributed podcast. A longtime activist for women in the arts, she organized and performed at the “Local Lilith Fair” in Champaign, Illinois and sang for longtime Bobby McFerrin collaborator Rhiannon. Locally in Madison, Wisconsin, she has been heard singing and/or playing clarinet (her childhood instrument) with the Big Mouth Cooperative, Swingtime Trio and pianist Dan Barker.