Death of America’s youngest concertmaster
RIPCharles Haupt was barely shaving when the San Antonio Symphony signed him as concertmaster back in the day. Lukas Foss swooped in 1966 to bring him to the Buffalo Philharmonic, where he served for 37 years. His subsequent music directors were Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Semyon Bychkov, Max Valdes and JoAnn Falletta.
Haupt was also concertmaster for 21 years at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival.
When Leonard Bernstein conducted his DG last recording of West Side Story, Charlie Haupt was leader of the orchestra.
Haupt died in Buffalo on August 18, 2024,aged 85.
Getting a male viola player to shave, brush their teeth, use deodorant, and wear matching socks, can be very challenging….
Insulting violists is so-o-o-o passé.
Sad to read this. He was my orchestral repertoire teacher during my undergrad at Eastman. Wonderful musician – tons of experience, great guy, funny stories. My condolences to his family, colleagues, and friends.
wow I can’t believe nobody commented on this one. a great man. I had him for orch rep at Eastman. Such a great musician, a great class!
After he retired from the Buffalo Philharmonic, Charles and his wife, Irene, created in 2006 a chamber music series called “A Musical Feast” that has been very much appreciated and loved. On September 7 the 19th season, having become a memorial, unrolled with a characteristically wide-ranging program, the first of two planned for this year, consisting of music by Britten (the Fuga from his First Suite for Solo Cello), Kaija Saariaho’s “Changing Light” for cello and soprano voice, Schubert’s “Rondo Brilliant” for violin and piano, a movement from a Bach violin partita, and, after the intermission, Julius Eastman’s “Gay Guerilla”, as adapted for solo vibraphone with loop pedal by new music specialist Stephen Salook. The wonderful violinist in the Schubert and Bach was Haupt’s friend Charles Castleman [a performer, I notice, who has come up in a few SD discussions]. Between the Britten and the Saariaho, there was a fine video created by Buffalo State emerita English Professor Ann Colley of narrated views of the East Anglia seashore, including a storm and a huge rainbow. So one has here a snapshot of the extraordinary scope of the 19 years of “Musical Feast” presentations, and I do hope they will continue in some form.