Career
He is artistic director of the Kansas City Chorale in Kansas City, Missouri and the Phoenix Chorale in Phoenix, Arizona, and is Chorus Director of the Kansas City Symphony. He lives in Kansas City and Phoenix. Charles Bruffy received his undergraduate degree in Piano from Missouri Western State University, and a Master"s degree in Conducting from the University of Missouri–Kansas City.
Mr.
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 in New New York Mr. Shaw encouraged Mr. Bruffy"s development as a conductor, and in 1996 he was invited by American Public Media"s Performance Today to help celebrate Shaw"s eightieth birthday with an on-air tribute.
In 1999, The New York Times named Bruffy as the late Shaw"s potential heir.
Mr. Bruffy became Artistic Director of the Kansas City Chorale in 1988. He took the reigns as Artistic Director of the Phoenix Chorale in 1998, and as Chorus Director of the Kansas City Symphony Chorus in 2008.
Mr. Bruffy conducts workshops and clinics both across the United States and internationally.
In 2015, he conducted the Texas All-State Choir. He presented workshops and conducted one of his choirs, the Kansas City Chorale, for the Association of Canadian Choral Communities at Podium 2014 – Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2014.
He was a clinician for the Anúna International Choral Summer School in 2013, and his past engagements include clinics and conducting in Beijing, China. Sydney, Australia and Incheon, of Korea among other cities.
He has taught at the Westminster Choir College Summer Conducting Institute in Princeton, New Jersey, every summer since 2006.
He is renowned for his fresh and passionate interpretations of standards of the choral repertoire, and for championing new music Bruffy has commissioned and premiered works by composers such as Ola Gjeilo, Matthew Harris, Anne Kilstofte, Libby Larsen, Zhou Long, Cecilia McDowall, Stephen Paulus, Steven Sametz, Philip Stopford, Steven Stucky, Joan Szymko, Eric Whitacre, Jean Belmont and Chen Yi. He has edited scores for the Roger Dean Company, a division of The Lorenz Corporation, which publishes a choral series specializing in music for professional ensembles and sophisticated high school and college choirs.