Fredrick Kaufman

In March, 2011, Fredrick Kaufman completed the "Guernica" Piano Concerto, a commission for the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and concert pianist Kemal Gekic. The "Guernica" Concerto was premiered and recorded in the 2013 concert season in Prague by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at the famed Smetana Concert Hall. The "Guernica" Piano Concerto with Kemal Gekic and the Czech National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Maestro Marcello Rota; his "Kaddish" Cello Concerto with soloist Mark Drobinsky and the Czech Radio Orchestra, and "Seascape" performed by the Czech Symphony Orchestra was released on a CD recording entitled Guernica by Parma Recording and distributed internationally by Naxos during the summer of 2013. Maestro Max Valdez and the Puerto Rico Symphony Orchestra performed the "Guernica" Concerto with Kemal Gekic at the Casals Festival in Puerto Rico in 2015. Parma Records released a CD in 2106 entitled Stars & Distances featuring the title work performed by the Florida Grand Opera conducted by Maestro Andrew Bisantz, and the orchestra work Seven Sisters with performers from the Czech Philharmonic and Czech Symphony Orchestra.

His latest multi-cultural works have received overwhelming praise in the press. His Kaminarimon (for Taiko drums and Flamenco dance) has been called "remarkable" and "stunning" and was voted as the number one classical composition of 2002 and "the most imaginative new work of the year" by, music critic, James Roos of The Miami Herald. His recently commissioned work Yin & Yang: A Dialogue for Two Grand Pianos, was launched and lauded by critics in New York and Miami, where it received its world premiere. String Quartet #6, "The Urban" was called "stunning" by New Yorker magazine. The Urban Quartet was nominated by Lukas Foss in 2007 for a Pulitzer Prize.

In 1997, the Miami Herald voted Maestro Fredrick Kaufman one of the 10 most influential people in the arts in the city of Miami. Kaufman continues to circle the globe with performances in Taiwan, Hong Kong, Spain, Poland, France, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Israel and Puerto Rico.

In 1985, the Statue of Liberty committee commissioned Fredrick Kaufman to write a choral work Mother of Exiles, for the re-dedication ceremonies of the Statue of Liberty. The composition was premiered by the United Nations Chorus at the ceremony and was broadcast worldwide by network television. WE THE PEOPLE 200 of the City of Philadelphia commissioned Kaufman to write his fifth Symphony, "The American", in 1987 for the 200th anniversary celebration of the Constitution. Maestro Kaufman conducted the premiere performance which was nationally broadcast on NBC-TV. Over the past 15 years, Kaufman has been called upon repeatedly to conduct his compositions around the world.

He played trumpet with the New York City Ballet Orchestra, taught at Yankton College and later became professor of composition at the University of Wisconsin. After serving as dean of the Philadelphia College for the Performing Arts from 1982 to 1985 and Professor of Music until 1993, he became director of the School of Music at Florida International University in Miami 1993 thru 2008.

Kaufman was born in Brooklyn, New York and studied trumpet, composition and jazz at the Manhattan School of Music (BMus 1959, MMus 1960). In addition, he studied composition with Vincent Persichetti and Vittorio Giannini at the Juilliard School.