Walter Kaufmann

Who was Walter Kaufmann?

Walter Kaufmann was a composer, conductor, musicologist, and educator. Born in Karlsbad, Bohemia, Kaufmann enjoyed a career that crossed international boundaries, taking him to Berlin, Bombay, London, and Canada, before he settled in Bloomington, Indiana, USA in 1957. After 1945 he was not allowed to come back to Bohemia because of his German ethnicity. In 1964, he became a naturalized U.S. citizen.

Kaufmann was noted for his study of Asian music, specializing in the music of India, Tibet, and China.

He was the composer of an opera, The Scarlet Letter, which was very well received at its premiere by the Opera Department of the Indiana University School of Music in the early 1960s.

Kaufmann died in 1984 in Bloomington.