Naftule Brandwein, or Naftuli Brandwine, (1884–1963) was a Jewish clarinetist and one of the most influential figures in the history of klezmer music. Brandwein was born in Przemyslany, Galicia (now Ukraine), into a family of klezmer musicians, part of the Strettener Hasidic dynasty of Rabbi Yehuda Hirsch Brandwein of Stratyn. His father Peysekhe played violin and was an improvising wedding poet (badkhn); of his thirteen sons, Moyshe played violin, French horn, and valve trombone, Mendel played piano, Leyzer played drums, and Azriel played cornet; Azriel became Naftule's first music teacher, and had a lasting impact on his playing. In 1908 Brandwein emigrated at the age of nineteen to the United States where he quickly became a star of the 78 rpm record era, proclaiming himself the "King of Jewish Music". Thus, he was considered to be among the first wave of American klezmer artists, those trained in the Old World