2016 Alumni Achievement Awardee

LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 10: Composer Charles Bruffy poses during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards Pre-Telecast at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on February 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rick Diamond/WireImage)
LOS ANGELES, CA – FEBRUARY 10: Composer Charles Bruffy poses during the 55th Annual GRAMMY Awards Pre-Telecast at Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on February 10, 2013 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Rick Diamond/WireImage)

Charles Bruffy is named the Conservatory’s 2016 Alumni Achievement Awardee

Five-time Grammy award-winning conductor Charles Bruffy has always known music was his destiny. Charles graduated in 1988 with his master’s in vocal performance and is currently the artistic director of the Kansas City Chorale since 1988 and the Phoenix Chorale since 1999, chorus director for the Kansas City Symphony Chorus since 2008 and music director at Rolling Hills Church since 1994. He conducts workshops and clinics across the U.S., including teaching at the Westminster Choir College Summer Conducting Institute since 2006.

“As a child, I realized I had a gift for music and began playing the piano at the very early age of about four, while my feet were still dangling from the bench. I guess I could say I have spent my whole life involved in music somehow.”

Originally from Savannah, Missouri, Bruffy graduated from Missouri Western State University with a degree in secondary education with an emphasis in piano. The call of the city drew Bruffy to Kansas City and he soon connected with the Conservatory of Music and Dance at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

“My desire to study with Inci Bashar made my enrollment choice at UMKC a no-brainer,” Bruffy said. “Inci Bashar was my voice teacher. It is my work with her, first turning me into a singer, that has perhaps had the biggest impact on the sound of my choirs.”