One of the most admired choral conductors in the United States, Charles Bruffy began his career as a tenor soloist, performing with the Robert Shaw Festival Singers in recordings and concerts in France, and in concerts at Carnegie Hall. Shaw encouraged his development as a conductor and in 1996 Bruffy was asked by National Public Radio to help celebrate Shaw’s eightieth birthday with an on-air tribute. In 1999, The New York Times named Bruffy as the late, great conductor’s potential heir, and in 2005, Fanfare magazine called him ‘one of the next big things in American choral music’. He has been Artistic Director of the Kansas City Chorale since 1988, of the Phoenix Chorale since 1999, and at the beginning of the 2008/09 season took up his post as Artistic Director of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus. He conducts workshops and clinics across the U.S., is a member of the Advisory Board of the Atlanta Young Singers of Callanwolde, and served on the Chorus America Board for seven years.
Respected and renowned for his fresh and passionate interpretations of standards of the choral repertoire and for championing new music, Charles Bruffy has commissioned and premiered works by American composers such as Jean Belmont Ford, Matthew Harris, Libby Larsen, Zhou Long, Stephen Paulus, Stephen Sametz, Steven Stucky, Eric Whitacre and Chen Yi. Under his supervision the Roger Dean Company, a division of the Lorenz Corporation, publishes a choral series specialising in music for professional ensembles and sophisticated high school and college choirs. Increasingly busy on the international scene, he recently conducted performances of Verdi’s Requiem at the Sydney Opera House in Australia. His eclectic discography includes four recordings for Chandos: Shakespeare in Song, Eternal Rest, Grechaninov’s Passion Week, and sacred choral works by Joseph Rheinberger.