Both elegant and edgy, Mrs. Hobbs is a sultry, cabaret singer and accordion player. Mixing and mashing up jazz, rock, glam, tango, punk, gypsy, folk, classical, and minimalist influences, her songs are filled with “mood”: melancholic, sensuous, humorous. Whether performing original songs or what have been said to be the best interpretations of others’ songs, Mrs. Hobbs is changing people’s ideas of what accordion music can be.

Mrs. Hobbs picked up a button-accordion in 2005,
taught herself to play, and started performing
around Los Angeles at clubs such as Bordello Bar,
the Rainbow Bar & Grill, and Safari Sam's.
She has performed at theatrical venues such as
Highways Performance Space, the Electric Lodge,
and Theatre of Note, and has participated in
events such as the Los Angeles Accordion Festival,
the Abbot Kinney Festival, and the Monsters of Accordion. She has also performed at numerous
art galleries and coffee houses, most notably
the Talking Stick, where she got her start.

Mrs. Hobbs is the “nom de musique” of Diana
Hobstetter, who is also a visual artist, web designer, and hoop-dancer. Now she plays both the
button accordion and the piano accordion. For more on
why she plays the accordion, what accordions she plays,
and various accordion tidbits, see THE ACCORDION PAGE.

COLLABORATORS

Mrs. Hobbs performs as a soloist and in various configurations with her highly talented friends and collaborators.

LOVEMANDO is a singer/songwriter and guitarist as well as an advertising maven. After meeting at an open mic in the Summer of 2009, lovemando invited Mrs. Hobbs to play some accordion on one of his songs. Shortly thereafter, they created the duo band, KETCHUP SOUP, and are currently cookin' up the Los Angeles music scene, playing their jazz/blues/folk/rock songs all around town. In the Spring of 2010, they released their 5-song demo cd "Topanga Canyon".

EVERYBODY NOSE is the Ahimsa Collective’s resident clown troupe. Led by Negin Singh and Jack De Sena, the Ahimsa Collective employs a highly collaborative exploratory process to their community-building performance pieces. Their clowns have quietly taken over coffee shops, art galleries, and even the Santa Monica Pier. Each performer has gone through a complex training in order to "birth" their own unique, fully dimensional clown being. They believe in the power of eye contact and intricate, intimate pieces that can make the audience erupt in laughter or tears in a matter of minutes. www.ahimsacollective.com

JERRY THE PRIEST (aka Jerome Dunn) is a singer/songwriter, guitarist and trombonist, as well as being counted among a core of LA-based, pre-slam era street poets, an avant garde theatre director, and a trained architect. He has performed at UCLA, Beyond Baroque, and the Knitting Factory, as well as other LA, national, and international locales. Jerry and Diana met in the fall of 2008, when they were both to perform with mutual friend, Milo Martin. They performed for about 6 months as a duo act, Lost Dog Found Cat, blending vocal harmonies, guitar, trombone, and accordion.

ANNABELLE CABRERA has been performing as a freelance classical violinist in Los Angeles since 1995 with a variety of orchestras including Culver City-Marina Del Rey Symphony, Peninsula Symphony, Carson Symphony, Torrance Symphony, and Burbank Philharmonic, as well as recently appearing with the Del Atkins Trio. Annabelle and Diana have been friends since the mid-90s, then when Mrs. Hobbs started making music, their friendship developed a new bond. They have performed together since early 2008 as part of "Mrs. Hobbs and
the Q & A".

QUENTIN JOSEPHY is a percussionist and has been deeply involved with the Afro-Cuban music and dance community in Los Angeles for over 5 years. He has studied with the likes of Lazaro Galarraga, Michael Spiro, Luka Brandoli, Bobby Wilmore and others. A former modern dancer with the Rudy Perez Performance Ensemble in the '80s, he is currently revisiting his dance roots with classes in Afro-Cuban folkloric dance. Quentin is also a Pilates master teacher. Quentin and Diana met when they both collaborated with mutual friends, Anne & Jeff Grimaldo of the modern dance company, Naked With Shoes, for "QuattroFormaggio: Common Side Effects" at Highways Performance Space in late 2007. Since 2008, they have performed together in the band "Mrs. Hobbs and the Q & A".

ANNE & JEFF GRIMALDO founded the modern dance company NAKED WITH SHOES in 1993, performing their own choreography. They are also dancers with the Rudy Perez Dance Ensemble. Anne & Jeff and Diana met through their daughters, and first worked together when they invited her to add music to their dance piece for "365 Days/365 Plays" at Highways Performance Space in 2007 and then further developed that piece into "Common Side Effects" for the dance event "Quattroformaggio" also at Highways later that year.

MILO MARTIN is one of LA's pre-emininent spoken-word poets, hosting, producing, and performing at numerous literary/art/music events at such places as the Onyx, Zen, and Glaxa Studios. His new collection of poetry and art, "Poems for the Utopian Nihilist" was published in 2008. He has also been spotted drumming in several bands. Milo and Diana have been friends and mutual appreciators since the mid-90s, and have recently performed together, combining music and spoken word.

POLI MARICHAL is a visual artist and shadow-puppeteer. Diana knew Poli through an art organization and invited her to perform a shadow-puppet show for her song, "This Tree Called Love" at the Los Angeles Accordion Festival in 2007 and at Max 10 in 2009.

STEFAN FABRY AND MITRA MARTIN are tango (and modern) dancers and teachers, who Diana met through Anne & Jeff Grimaldo. They tangoed to "March of the Tango" at the Los Angeles Accordion Festival in 2007.

AMY KAPS is a performance artist, filmaker, visual artist, singer, and musician. Amy and Diana discovered that they were soul-sisters in the mid-90s, and have collaborated over the years in a variety of ways.

THE MRS. HOBBS EXPERIMENT

The Mrs. Hobbs Experiment focuses on theatrical works that combine music with other performance arts, such as dance, poetry, puppetry, and circus arts.

On October 8 & 9, 2010, The Mrs. Hobbs Experiment will present the theatrical production "CHIMERA" at Highways Performance Space in Santa Monica. The piece combines and extends previous collaborations and features Anne & Jeff Grimaldo of Naked With Shoes, Amy Kaps, Poli Marichal, Everybody Nose Clown Troupe, lovemando, Annabelle Cabrera, and Quentin Josephy.

See the Shows page for more information.

Previous Mrs. Hobbs Experiment performance include:

• "The Girl of the Sea", performed at the 14th Annual Performance Marathon at Theatre of Note and for Max 10 at the Electric Lodge in early 2009, with Jerry the Priest, Annabelle Cabrera, Quentin Josephy, Milo Martin, Amy Kaps, and Anne & Jeff Grimaldo. See video.
  
• "Where Did My Love Go?", an absurd song of relationships, strange journeys, and human and bovine desires, was performed with clowns Chloe (Deirdre Gaffney) and Hemingspeare (Alex Vlahov) at Max 10 at the Electric Lodge in 2009.
• "This Tree Called Love" was performed with shadow-puppets created and manipulated by Poli Marichal at the Los Angeles Accordion Festival in 2007.