Charles Bruffy (born 1958) is an American

choral conductor Conducting is the art of directing a musical performance, such as an orchestral or choral concert. It has been defined as "the art of directing the simultaneous performance of several players or singers by the use of gesture." The primary duties ...

. He is artistic director of the

Kansas City Chorale The Kansas City Choralewww.kcchorale.org is a professional 27-voice chorus conducted by Charles Bruffy. They perform a four concert series in Kansas City, tour nationwide, and perform with their sister choir, the Phoenix Chorale, also conducted ...

Kansas City, Missouri Kansas City (abbreviated KC or KCMO) is the largest city in Missouri by population and area. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city had a population of 508,090 in 2020, making it the List of United States cities by populat ...

, and is Chorus Director of the

Kansas City Symphony The Kansas City Symphony (KCS) is a United States symphony orchestra based in Kansas City, Missouri. The current music director is conductor Michael Stern. The Symphony performs at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts, located at 1601 Bro ...

. He lives in Kansas City.

Education and career

Charles Bruffy received his bachelor's degree in piano performance from Missouri Western State College in St. Joseph, Missouri, and a master's degree in vocal performance from the Conservatory of Music at the University of Missouri Kansas City. He received the Spotlight Alumni Award from the Conservatory of Music at UMKC's 1999 Alumni Awards Luncheon. He received the UMKC Class of 2016 Alumni Award for the Conservatory. In October 2017 he received the Signature Sinfonian award from the

Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia Fraternity of America (colloquially known as Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia, Phi Mu Alpha, or simply Sinfonia) () is an American collegiate social fraternity for men with a special interest in music. The fraternity is open to men "w ...

fraternity. Bruffy began his career as a tenor soloist for Robert Shaw (conductor), performing with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers for recordings and concerts in France and at

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th and 57th Streets. Designed by architect William Burnet Tuthill and built ...

in New York. Mr. Shaw encouraged Mr. Bruffy's development as a conductor, and in 1996 he was invited by

American Public Media American Public Media (APM) is an American company that produces and distributes public radio programs in the United States, the second largest company of its type after NPR. Its non-profit parent, American Public Media Group, also owns and o ...

's '' Performance Today'' to help celebrate Shaw's eightieth birthday with an on-air tribute. In 1999,

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

named Bruffy as the late Shaw's potential heir. Bruffy became Artistic Director of the

in 1988. He has been Director of Music at Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church since 1995. He took the reins as Chorus Director of the

Chorus in 2008. Bruffy conducts workshops and clinics both across the US and internationally. In 2015, he conducted the Texas All-State Choir. He presented workshops and conducted one of his choirs, the

, for the Association of Canadian Choral Communities at ''Podium 2014'' –

Halifax, Nova Scotia Halifax is the capital and largest municipality of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia, and the largest municipality in Atlantic Canada. As of the 2021 Census, the municipal population was 439,819, with 348,634 people in its urban area. Th ...

, in 2014. He was a clinician for the

Anúna Anúna (stylized in all caps) is a vocal ensemble formed in Ireland in 1987 by Irish composer Michael McGlynn under the name An Uaithne. Taking the current name in 1991,Allmusic Biography/ref> the group has recorded 18 albums and achieved a ...

International Choral Summer School in 2013, and his past engagements include clinics and conducting in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the Capital city, capital of the China, People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's Li ...

, China;

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mounta ...

, Australia and

Incheon Incheon (; ; or Inch'ŏn; literally "kind river"), formerly Jemulpo or Chemulp'o (제물포) until the period after 1910, officially the Incheon Metropolitan City (인천광역시, 仁川廣域市), is a city located in northwestern South Kore ...

, Korea among other cities. He has taught at the

Westminster Choir College , mottoeng = Let us be judged by our deeds , established = 1926 , type = Private , president = Gregory G. Dell'Omo , dean = Marshall Onofrio , city = Dayton, OH (1926–1929), Ithaca, NY (1929–1932), Princeton, NJ (1932–2020), Lawrenc ...

Summer Conducting Institute in

Princeton, New Jersey Princeton is a municipality with a borough form of government in Mercer County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey. It was established on January 1, 2013, through the consolidation of the Borough of Princeton and Princeton Township, both of w ...

, every summer since 2006. He is a member of the Advisory Boards of the Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde and WomenSing in the San Francisco Bay area, and he served on the board of Chorus America for seven years. Bruffy has commissioned and premiered works by composers such as Ola Gjeilo, Matthew Harris, Anne Kilstofte,

Libby Larsen Elizabeth Brown Larsen (born December 24, 1950) is a contemporary American classical composer. Along with composer Stephen Paulus, she is a co-founder of the Minnesota Composers Forum, now the American Composers Forum. A former holder of the Pa ...

, Zhou Long, Cecilia McDowall,

Stephen Paulus Stephen Paulus (August 24, 1949 – October 19, 2014) was an American Grammy Award winning composer, best known for his operas and choral music. His style is essentially tonal, and melodic and romantic by nature. His best-known piece is his 1 ...

Steven Sametz Steven Sametz (born 1954, Westport, Connecticut) is active as both conductor and composer. He has been hailed as "one of the most respected choral composers in America." Since 1979, he has been on the faculty of Lehigh University in Bethleh ...

Philip Stopford Philip W J Stopford (born 1977) is an English organist and composer best known for his choral works.Philip Stopford webs ...

Steven Stucky Steven Edward Stucky (November 7, 1949 − February 14, 2016) was a Pulitzer Prize-winning American composer. Life and career Stucky was born in Hutchinson, Kansas. At age 9, he moved with his family to Abilene, Texas, where, as a teenager, he ...

Joan Szymko Joan Szymko (born 1957) is an American choral conductor, music educator and composer. She was born in Chicago and studied choral conducting and music education at the University of Illinois at Urbana, graduating in 1978. She settled in Seattle, W ...

Eric Whitacre Eric Edward Whitacre (born January2, 1970) is an American composer, conductor, and speaker best known for his choral music. In March2016, he was appointed as Los Angeles Master Chorale's first artist-in-residence at the Walt Disney Concert Hall ...

, Jean Belmont and Chen Yi. He has edited scores for the Roger Dean Company, a division of

The Lorenz Corporation The Lorenz Corporation, previously known as Lorenz Publishing Company, is a music publisher located in Dayton, Ohio, United States. It is best known for its publication of church music Church music is Christian music written for performanc ...

, which publishes a choral series specializing in music for professional ensembles and sophisticated high school and college choirs.

Awards and recognition

Bruffy received three

Grammy award The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most pr ...

s as a conductor, and his albums received five Grammys total. He received the 2008 Grammy for "Best Small Ensemble Performance" with the Phoenix Chorale for ''Spotless Rose''. He won the 2012 Grammy for "Best Choral Performance" with the Kansas City Chorale for ''Life and Breath: Music of

René Clausen René Clausen (born 1953) is an American composer, conductor emeritus of The Concordia Choir, and professor of music at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. His works are widely performed by high school and church choirs while his more te ...

'' which also won the Grammy for Best Engineered Album-Classical. His recording ''Rachmaninoff: All Night Vigil'' with the combined voices of the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale won the 2015 Grammy for Best Choral Performance. His breakthrough recording was

Alexander Gretchaninov Alexander Tikhonovich GretchaninovAlso commonly transliterated as ''Aleksandr/Alexandre'' ''Grechaninov/Gretchaninoff/Gretschaninow'' ( rus, Алекса́ндр Ти́хонович Гречани́нов, p=ɐlʲɪˈksandr ɡrʲɪtɕɐˈnʲin� ...

's ''Passion Week,'' also featuring the two Chorales together. It won the 2007

for "Best Engineered Classical Album". His albums were nominated for 12 Grammy awards total, including four nominations in 2007 for ''Passion Week'', two in 2008 for ''Sacred Choral Works of Josef Rheinberger'', two in 2008 for ''Spotless Rose'', two in 2012 for ''Life and Breath'', and two in 2015 for ''All-Night Vigil''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruffy, Charles American choral conductors American male conductors (music) 1958 births Living people Missouri Western State University alumni University of Missouri–Kansas City alumni 21st-century American conductors (music) 21st-century American male musicians