Performer-composer Charles Kaufmann jamming on a replica ca. 1870 Brahms-era Schimmel Viennese bassoon, copy by G. Wolf. [Photo by Richard G. Sandifer]
The choral compositions of Charles Kaufmann may be viewed, listened to and purchased through the composer's self-publishing web site The Lygonia Press
Charles (Chip) Kaufmann was born in Wilmette, Illinois, in 1955, and now lives in Portland, Maine, where, in the late-19th century, his great-grandfather Gregory—buried in Portland's Evergreen Cemetery—was a lumberman. Kaufmann is among the leading Baroque and Classical bassoonists in North America. He is founding director of The Longfellow Chorus—a non-profit choral group in Portland, Maine—an organist and an award-winning composer. He holds degrees from Eastman School of Music (BM and Performer's Certificate, bassoon) and Yale University School of Music (MM), where he was a Keith Wilson Scholar. He received two fellowships to Tanglewood.
As an organist, he is a former student of James David Christie. Over the past thirteen years he also has held organist and choral directing positions in churches in Portland, Maine; Kennebunkport, Maine; Exeter, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire.
As a bassoonist, he studied with K. David Van Hoesen, Sherman Walt and Arthur Weisberg. He is a former member of the Bergen Philharmonic, Bergen, Norway. Currently a member of the Handel & Haydn Society Period Orchestra of Boston, he performs and records regularly in period instrument ensembles made up of "many of North America's top early music specialists," [James McQuillen, The Oregonian] and "national original instrument all-stars," [Richard Dyer, Boston Globe]. Recent concerts have included engagements with the Handel & Haydn Society of Boston, Trinity Consort, of Portland, Oregon, and Music In Context, Houston, Texas.
Listen to Charles Kaufmann, bassoonist, performing the bassoon solo in Ravel's Bolero with the Bergen (Norway) Philharmonic:
Bolero
Listen to Saint-Saens Bassoon Sonata, Charles Kaufmann, bassoon; Einar Rottingen, piano. (Recorded in Greig Hall, Bergen, Norway, by Norwegian Radio, NRK):
Allegro Moderato
Allegro Scherzando
Molto Adagio
Allegro Moderato
For New World Recordings and Aurora Productions he has recorded premiers of contemporary bassoon works by internationally-known twentieth and twenty-first century composers.
Listen to Divertimento for Solo Bassoon, by Oystein Sommerfeldt, Charles Kaufmann, bassoonist. (Recorded in Gamle Logen, Olso, Norway):
Divertimento I
Divertimento II
Divertimento III
Listen to an excerpt from Phoenix, 1997, for bassoon and piano, by Elliott Schwartz, with Charles Kaufmann, bassoonist, and Elliott Schwartz, piano, recorded in The Studio, Portland, Maine, USA.
Kaufmann gained a unique perspective on the life of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807-1882, through giving—more, or less—500 tours of Longfellow's childhood home for the Maine Historical Society. In 2007, as organist at the First Parish in Portland, UUA, the Longfellow family church, he founded The Longfellow Chorus, Inc. in order to help celebrate the poet's bicentennial.
Listen to Snow-Flakes, Charles Kaufmann's SATB setting of a poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, sung by The Longfellow Chorus, (Portland, Maine), Charles Kaufmann, director. Snow-Flakes won the second prize in the 2007 Ithaca College Choral Composition Contest and Festival, where it was beautifully sung by the Niagra-Wheatfield High School Chorus, David Curtis, director, Robert Hall, pianist. Listen to Niagra-Wheatfield High School's Ithaca Competition performance of Snow-Flakes.
Listen to a masterful performance of Snow-Flakes recorded December 1, 2007, by The Choral Art Society of Portland, Robert Russell, director.
In 2008, Charles Kaufmann was commissioned by The Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine, to compose two additional Longfellow settings to be performed with Snow-Flakes in December, 2009. Ultimately, the commission -- "A Longfellow Winter" -- was completed using four additional highly unusual Longfellow winter poems as texts.
, by the Acadia Choral Society, Jamie Hagedorn, director, Bar Harbor, Maine, December 2, 2007.His SATB choral composition, The Peace of Wild Things, (a Wendell Berry poem), was chosen as one of six final entries in the international 2003 23rd Annual Ithaca College School of Music Choral Composition Contest.
His SATB choral composition, The Sky Sings, a Denise Duhamel poem, was performed in May, 2007, by The Choral Art Society of Portland, Maine, Robert Russell, director. About this performance, Denise Duhamel commented, "I felt like I was hearing my muse singing back to me. I could never have imagined such a beautiful song springing from the text."
He was commissioned by the Community Chorus at South Berwick, Maine, to compose an SATB choral composition for their 2007-08 season. The new work, Spheres, a short cantata setting of a series of brief poems by Constance Hunting, 1925-2006, was premiered in spring, 2008.
His interest in history and music has led him to organize several vocal concerts centered around the music of nearly forgotten American composers. In 1992, "Music from Celia Thaxter's Parlor," performed in Kennebunkport, Maine, and on the site of the Appledore Hotel, Appledore Island, Maine, brought to life Victorian art song settings of the poetry of the New Hampshire/Maine poet. In 1998, his choral concert featuring music published between 1795 and 1810 in Exeter, New Hampshire, by Ranlet & Norris rekindled interest in a local Federal Period music publisher, and was called by the Boston Globe "a finale that should be remembered for many years to come." In February, 2008, and again in March, 2008, he will lead choral concerts celebrating the 201st birthday of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and featuring American, French, English and Hindu choral and vocal settings of the poetry of Longfellow, 1845-1918. These concerts will take place in the Longfellow family church in Portland, Maine, and at The Wayside Inn, Massachusetts.
He is currently collaborating with the ASERELA Maine Youth Chorus in the aural documentation of their significant vocal legacy, funded by The Maine Community Foundation.
Listen to a
preview of the up-coming CD, "Sacred Songs from a Sacred Land," featuring the historic combination of the Aserela-Maine Youth Organization Choir and Inanna, Sisters in Rhythm: biblical passages sung in the Acholi language, recorded Dec. 2007 at the First Parish in Portland, Maine, UUA. (Recording copyright ASERELA Maine, Alfred Jacob, director, and Charles Kaufmann, producer). When Southern Sudan comes to Southern Maine -- not by first preference over homeland -- there are remarkable, joyous, and, inevitably, tearful events to witness and share. As the Acholi saying goes: Te Okono obur bong' luputu.Listen to another "Sacred Songs from a Sacred Land" preview. Anna, a first generation United States immigrant from southern Sudan, sings an Acholi Christian chant about Mary — an invocation to prayer — accompanied by chimes fomerly part of the organ of the Chestnut Street Church, Portland, Maine, and here imaging what the church bells of Juba would sound like.
And the ASERELA chorus sings another, Wakelo Tyerwa: "We bring our gift." Here can be heard an ululation known in Acholi as kajila, as sung by Christine, a high school student in Portland, Maine.
REVIEWS AND COMMENTS
I think the performance does great credit to all involved. As a past holder of the office of International Co-ordinator to The Elgar Society, I am delighted that this wonderful — and rarely heard — cantata has received such an excellent and committed performance in America.
—Paul Adrian Rooke, commenting on the performance of Elgar's The Black Knight by The Longfellow Chorus, conducted by Charles Kaufmann
The concerts were superb — especially the Sunday concert, every second of which was pure joy. The Longfellow settings were expertly and sensitively honed, with heart-warming dedication and masterful musical insight — even now fragments of melody continue to play in my head. As for the Elgar, the music was a revelation, and the performance a sensation. I could tell that the audience realised what a privileged bunch they were. Hearty congratulations to your outstanding chorus, company of musicians — and their inspirational conductor.
—Kevin Jones, one of the 2008-09 Longfellow Chorus International Composers Competition winning composers commenting on the Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 202nd Birthday Choral Concert, Charles Kaufmann, Director
Charles Kaufmann has single-handedly resurrected an interest in Longfellow and how Longfellow's poetry has been set to music in the past; and, in addition, he has inspired composers world-wide to create new music set to Longfellow's poetry.
- Lily Gordon, trustee, Longfellow's Wayside Inn National Historic Site
The more popular second section had several highlights, including a surprising...impressive... "Snow-Flakes," by Charles Kaufmann, based on an uncharacteristic Longfellow poem that expresses a real, unromantic, Maine feeling about snow.
- Christopher Hyde, Portland Press Herald, December 3, 2007; review of "Christmas in the Cathedral," Choral Art Society
I felt like I was hearing my muse singing back to me. I could never have imagined such a beautiful song springing from the text.
- Denise Duhamel, commenting on Charles Kaufmann's choral setting of her poem, The Sky Sings.
[Kaufmann's music] is not minimalism, new romanticism, or so-called new age music, but a combination of these. These styles are not mimicked. They only serve as a point of departure from which stems a distinct and personal statement.
- Peter Dobrin, The Philadelphia Inquirer
e-mail: Charles Kaufmann