Charles Bruffy is the hard working conductor of both the Kansas City Chorale and the Phoenix Chorale. In the midst of a typically busy holiday season last year, he led the Phoenix singers, together with the Sonoran Brass Quintet, in a magnificent concert on the Sunday before Christmas at La Casa de Cristo Church. After the concert, which I had the pleasure of attending, I arranged to speak with Maestro Bruffy the following week, when he was again ensconced in his beautiful Kansas home.
At one point during the interview, Bruffy’s mini-dachshund, Tootsie Roll, took off for the door with a loud greeting for the neighbor dogs being walked down “her” street, serving as a reminder that this now famous choral conductor started out intending to become a veterinarian. Read what brought him to change professional directions and learn what he looks for in singers with whom he works.
Do you come from a musical home?
Neither of my parents was particularly musical, but they were supportive of my interests. Although we never lived in a very large city, my mother always had tickets for us to go to the musical events that came through town. My mother’s mother had been acquainted with Ernestine Schumann-Heink, who urged her to go to Europe to become an opera singer. My grandmother ended up staying in Michigan and raising seven children on a dairy farm instead. My father can scat with the best of the Appalachian boot stompers, so I think there is a germ of talent running through the family.
I was born in Wisconsin but we moved around throughout the Midwest quite a bit. When I was a junior in high school we moved to Savannah, Mo., which is just north of St. Joseph. There I studied piano with Jerry Anderson of Missouri Western State University. I had begun piano at the age of 4 and had taken lessons regularly from then on. In the fifth grade, I played clarinet and in the sixth grade, cello, which I just love. Because I had woodwind experience, I knew what it was to make tone without the voice. When I played the cello, I could make a ballet gesture with the bow arm while investigating what was created in tone by the way I drew the bow across the strings. The effect of velocity, intensity and pressure of movement has a real correlation with the sound that can be drawn from the voice.
Where did you go to college?
I studied to be a veterinarian at Missouri Western State University. One day I had that “look-yourself-in-the-mirror” conversation and I asked myself what I wanted to be at age 40, never thinking it would really happen to me. I then realized that my love for animals had almost gotten me off track and that I had to do music, even though I did not then know what form it would take.
After that, I had to have that big talk with my dad, who said all those appropriate things like, “What about a job?” After I graduated, I went to Finland for six months on a 4-H youth exchange, returning home in October. Then I enrolled at the conservatory in Kansas City and started working on a master’s degree in voice performance. I had already been taking voice lessons as an undergraduate, but I had not been very serious about practicing while I was planning on being a vet.
How did you come to conduct the Kansas City Chorale?
When I was finishing my master’s in voice performance, I got a call from the Kansas City Chorale. Their tenor soloist was sick, so they wanted me to sing a rehearsal on Saturday and a concert on Sunday. I always tell young people that you have to be prepared for opportunities when they present themselves. If I had messed up that chance, I would never have gotten a second call.
They invited me to join the chorale as a singer, and then, because I was a pianist as well as a tenor, they asked if I would also be an assistant conductor. Their regular conductor, John Goldsmith, was flying up from Houston for the final rehearsals and performances.
Strictly speaking, I had not done any conducting, but I had watched plenty of it. I knew that it was “floor-wall-wall-ceiling,” so I put that into overdrive and everything turned out well.
All I could do at that time was listen and respond. I could make a movement with my arm or hand and then listen to what the result was. If it was not what I expected, I knew I had not shown them exactly what I wanted. Goldsmith allowed me to have a wonderful laboratory where I could experiment with gestures and see the responses they evoked. It was my most important classroom.
Goldsmith chose the repertoire and did all the planning while I did the preparation. For two years, he only came for weekend rehearsals and concerts. During the second year I became associate conductor, which meant that I would lead any concerts that came up in addition to the regular season. He also let me direct two songs of my choosing at each regular concert. At the time, I did not realize how amazingly generous he was. I went through all the songs in rehearsal and he allowed me to conduct the two that had the most impact on me, utilizing my own style and my own musicality. It may be why my conducting style is more one of interpretive dance than what is most often seen.
In essence, I was prepared for the opportunities and the opportunities chose me. I feel amazingly lucky because my whole career has resulted from opportunities that have come down the pike. I have been prepared for them, but I did not expect to be the conductor of a nine-time Grammy-nominated choir. Last year our recording of the Grechaninov Passion Week music was nominated for five Grammy Awards, and we won for “Best Engineer,” thanks to John Newton of Soundmirror.
This year Phoenix’s Spotless Rose received two nominations, for “Best Classical Recording” and “Best Small Ensemble.” The Rheinberger Sacred Choral Works, a joint recording with both the Kansas City and Phoenix chorales, also received two nominations, for “Best Choral Entry” and “Best Surround Sound.”
What do you look for in singers you audition?
My singers have to be able to read music. In an audition, I expect them to sight-read music correctly as to both notes and rhythm. We go too fast for anyone who can’t sight-sing. Technique should be automatic. I want to hear the kind of music they can make spontaneously. It’s not appropriate for me to have to teach the notes to a professional singer.
Also, because my singers are all adults, I can ask things of their voices that would overtax younger instruments. I am also alert to their “coachability.” I ask them to do things with the solo repertoire that they bring prepared, like singing it in a completely different style. The bottom line, though, is whether or not I like them and think they will fit in our family. We can’t make the kind of music we like if there is a weak link, either vocally or personally.
Do you ask your singers to use straight tone?
The voice, the production of the voice, and the tone produced must always be healthy and colorful. It must be free, vibrant, and buoyant. I also think that any professional singer must have a developed technique that will allow him or her to sing in a tone appropriate to the music. I will admit that both of my choirs sing with a pretty straight tone most of the time.
Are there solo opportunities for chorale members?
We don’t audition for solos. Out of town singers often send me their packets hoping for solos, but I hire my own singers because I can. Recently we did Ernst Krenek’s Cantata for the Transitoriness of Earthly Things, which has a huge soprano solo. It tilts toward twelve-tone with fast notes, slow notes, big notes, small notes, lows, and highs. It’s very dramatic. But our soloist, Rebecca Lloyd, came from the chorus. She is also the soloist in Electa, the big piece by Jean Belmont Ford on the Spotless Rose recording. When it is not her turn to sing alone, you would never know she is there.
Recently, we have also sung Respighi’s incredibly beautiful Laud to the Nativity. Our soprano, alto, and tenor all came from within the chorus.
How do you integrate solo singers into the group?
We are a team and our singers have to think that way. Being part of a group puts requirements on the individual’s technique. Each choir is an ensemble of 24 soloists. Entering either group, now that they are so used to singing together, is difficult. It’s not that they don’t welcome new members. They do, but we expect new singers to know when they have made a mistake, and not make it again.
The first time a singer makes a mistake I will not say anything. The second time, I will mention it. The third time, the singer’s feelings will be hurt. On the fourth occasion [he chuckles], the section will take him or her out behind the barn and that person won’t be seen again.
Our singers have high expectations for themselves and each other. They are the ones most eager to create sound.
We don’t sing Brahms with the same voice we use for Chinese folk songs or Russian liturgical works. Whether you are a soloist or a soloist singing as part of an ensemble, you have to be aware and able to modify your sound to fit the music. That, for me, is what it’s all about. When we sing Russian music I want us to sound as if we just came in from the fields. I want us to sound as if we have experienced the life of a native.
Composers Chen Yi and Zhou Long live right here in Kansas City so we sing a lot of new Chinese music. I want listeners to close their eyes and be able to recognize which province we come from.
European singers might have more exposure to other languages and cultures than most Americans, but American conductors have a responsibility to make the music of various times and places sound authentic. We have centuries of repertoire from many nations in widely differing styles. Good multicultural performance practice requires singers to make every piece sound as if indigenous people were performing it.
We have recorded Russian music by [Alexander] Grechaninov and Rachmaninov, as well as music by Brahms, American folk songs, American sacred music, etc. Many reviews expressed surprise that a chorale from Middle America could do those kinds of works and be successful in making the right sounds for each piece. That is the biggest compliment that I could ever get. For example, the Rachmaninov Liturgy was premiered by the Moscow Synodal Choir of boys and men. Our women have good techniques and they sound like boys on that CD.
Are the Kansas City and Phoenix chorale singers paid?
Chorus America defines a professional chorus as one in which every chorister is paid at least twice the minimum wage. Both the Phoenix and Kansas City chorales exceed that level for rehearsals. Performance pay is higher and there is additional money for touring. In each city, we rehearse once a week. As performance time approaches, we may practice twice a week or more. Each city has a series of four different concerts, each of which is performed up to five times. The chorales provide a good weekend job, but all of our singers have other employment.
How did you obtain the position with the Phoenix Chorale?
The Arizona people already knew of my work with the Kansas City Chorale from our recordings on Nimbus and when they were looking for a new conductor, they called out of the clear blue.
How do you select your repertoire?
That, in fact, is my biggest challenge. There is so much music out there that it’s hard to choose which of the many incredible works to sing. I have very good friends and colleagues whom I trust and they help with recommendations. I also ask the singers what they would like to do. They may spark my own ideas or they may give me an idea on which I can build a program. Every program needs to have an organic rhythm to it.
How did you first get to record?
Again, that came to us. Back in the early ’90s, Andrew Petersen, whom I’d never met before, phoned me and said, “You know there isn’t any recording of American Christmas music. I’ve been looking for it and can’t find it. I hear that you have a pretty good choir and I think you should make that recording.” He asked for archival tapes of performances and he sent them out to recording companies with a proposal. I remember thinking, “Yeah, this is going to happen?” but three labels responded positively. Nimbus said they wanted to pay us to do it! I was delirious. Before I knew it I was on a plane to Wales to sign contracts.
That first recording, Nativitas, includes a 20-minute cycle by Kansas City composer Jean Belmont Ford. The CD had amazing sales and won a NAIRD [National Association of Independent Record Distributors] award. Nimbus wanted the recording to be as close to a live performance as possible and they hesitated to do any editing. That got us accustomed to performing on a high wire with no net.
After we made several CDs with Nimbus they withdrew from the recording business. I was then engaged in Phoenix and with that choir we recorded a group of Shakespeare texts, which we floated past several labels. Chandos wanted us and we decided to go with them.
What do you expect to record next?
René Clausen is writing a new double chorus Mass for us and I think we will be recording that this spring. There’s another long list of works I’d like to record. We also hope to start touring more. With the Grammy attention that we have gotten within the last two years, we hope to be able to sell some seats. We will be appearing on the Troy, New York, Music Series on March 15 and at Alice Tully Hall on March 16.
Do you have a personal life?
A what? [Laughs] I’m one of that rare breed of people who loves his job so much that it never seems like work. Besides the chorales, I conduct the 120-member Kansas City Symphony Chorus and I have a church job in Overland Park. I have been with the Rolling Hills Presbyterian Church for close to 15 years. They are really generous with me and let me go when I need to be in Phoenix and other places. I really appreciate their letting me stay on there while I pursue my career. When I do find time to just play, I love to ride saddle-bred horses and spend time with friends over a delicious meal.
