In Thursday’s (10/28) Daily Pilot (Costa Mesa, California), Bradley Zint writes, “Richard Kaufman’s life between his beginnings as a musically inclined 7-year-old to today is a showcase of many accomplishments. This week, the Pacific Symphony is celebrating one of them: his 20-year tenure as its principal pops conductor. … The musician from west Los Angeles, who now lives in Encino, graduated from Cal State Northridge. While there, he left his mark as the composer of the then-young university’s alma mater, ‘Hail to the Matadors.’ It’s still played today. Soon after graduation he began working for Burt Bacharach. This led to more music gigs in conducting and playing, including playing violin for nearly a decade in the studios that record scores for films. … Kaufman said he loves the [Pacific Symphony’s] versatility. ‘You give them classical music, film music, Broadway—whatever it is—they’re just fantastic. They were then, and they always have been. And they get better and better, which is a tribute to [Music Director] Carl St. Clair. He’s the visionary, the point of the arrow in all this. Carl has made this orchestra what it is.’ St. Clair called his colleague and friend a ‘walking encyclopedia of popular music.’ ” (Kaufman is interviewed about pops in the November-December issue of Symphony magazine; click here.)
Posted November 1, 2010
