Charles Victor Haupt

August 18, 2024
(1939-2024)

IN LOVING MEMORY OF CHARLES HAUPT

In 2006, my husband Charles Haupt and I began our musical odyssey by founding “A Musical Feast”. We embarked on a journey that fuses classical music, and contemporary music with storytelling. From now on these events will be in loving memory of Charles. He will be present in spirit. He left us August 18 2024, after many grueling years of painful dialysis, MS, and many more health problems.

Charles once described the founding of ” A Musical Feast”. He wrote: “I formed this series after I retired from the Buffalo Philharmonic orchestra to highlight area musicians and to give myself another opportunity to keep playing.” In 2019, he told an interviewer: “I also wanted to close the gap between new music and old music as well as combine this music with dance and storytelling.” The resulting concert series was in residence at the Burchfield Penney Art Center for more than a decade. One of its triumphs was a posthumous tribute to former BPO musical director Lukas Foss in 2008.

Renowned violist Jesse Levine, a childhood friend, suggested that Mr. Haupt play a concert with the Creative Associates at UB, which Lukas Foss had founded. In 1967, he became one of 13 new Creative Associates. He was reappointed for two more years.

In 1967, John Dwyer, the Buffalo News critic, wrote that the Associates “are bringing us a kind of esteem in right-now art which is enjoyed by fewer than a dozen centers around the globe, perhaps a half dozen in the nation.”

Charles played in the avant garde “Evenings for New Music” that Foss conducted in the Albright-Knox Art Gallery and in Carnegie Hall, New York City. When the previous BPO concertmaster retired in 1969, he auditioned and won the position.

BPO Music Director JoAnn Falletta wrote following his death: “Charlie Haupt served as the concertmaster for the Buffalo Philharmonic under an unprecedented six music directors, and was a powerful force in the development of the orchestra and of the Creative Associates at the University at Buffalo. His strong leadership, acclaimed performances and pedagogy greatly enriched our community in his long and distinguished tenure.”

As Buffalo Philharmonic concertmaster for 37 years, Charles played under such esteemed music directors as Lukas Foss, Michael Tilson Thomas, Julius Rudel, Seymon Bychkov, Max Valdes and JoAnn Falletta. He performed many orchestral solos which included concertos by Bach, Barber, Berg, Bernstein, Beethoven, Mozart, Bartok, Tartini, Fetler, Glazounov, Ernst, and the Chausson Poeme and Brahms double. During his 21 years as concertmaster of New York ” Mostly Mozart”, Charles played under many world- renowned conductors, many of whom became good friends.

Born in New York City, Charles Victor Haupt was the son of Saul and Jeanne Zuckerman Haupt. Violinist Josef Gingold was a neighbor of the Haupts in Great Neck, L.I., and took young Charles under his wing when they vacationed together in the Catskills.

Charles spent many subsequent summers at the Meadowmount camp for young musicians. He attended Juilliard School of Music and Mannes College of Music.

Retired principal cellist of Chicago’s Lyric Opera and the New York Ballet Company, Danny Morgenstern wrote: “I met Charles in 1956 in the vestibule of Carnegie Hall. We had both been selected to play one concert with the New York Philharmonic. Charlie was stylishly dressed with a crew cut, and I heard him practicing the Tchaikovsky Concerto on his Bergonzi violin. In all my years of playing I never dreamed that anyone could be that cool.”

In 1961, Charles became the youngest concertmaster of a major symphony orchestra in the United States when he was engaged by the San Antonio Symphony. He was awarded a two-year Fulbright scholarship to study with the legendary teacher, conductor, and composer Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

In the 1980s, he was part of the acclaimed Baird Piano Trio in residence at the University of Buffalo. He also toured extensively. He was first violin at the Stravinsky and Koussevitzky chamber music festivals at Lincoln Center in New York City and was concertmaster and soloist for 21 years at Lincoln Center’s Mostly Mozart Festival. Charles was also featured soloist with the New York Philharmonic and concertmaster for Leonard Bernstein on his last recording of “West Side Story.” Charles performed with the American String Project in Seattle, Wash., and in many festivals around the world.

A mentor to many other musicians, Charles taught at the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, NY and often coached members of the New World Symphony in Miami. Arie Lipsky, who played opposite Charles in Kleinhans Music Hall for 17 years as principal cellist and then as music director of the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra, wrote: “Charlie was also a mensch. I first met him in New York City in the summer of 1984. I arrived for an audition for then BPO music director, Julius Rudel. Upon arriving, Charlie told me that I’ll have to wait a few hours since Rudel was late arriving from Europe. That meant that I had to miss my flight back and in addition, I realized that my cello broke and that I forgot my music.

“Charlie quickly reacted to my obvious frustration, didn’t miss a beat, and offered me a plate of wonderful fruit assortment and then we told jokes. This humane gesture helped ease my nerves and I ended up playing a great audition and eventually getting the BPO principal cellist position.”

Mr. Haupt had a passion for photography. He had a darkroom in his home. His photos have been exhibited at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and the Burchfield Penney. He was a connoisseur and collector of American Indian art, prehistoric artifacts, antique furniture and 18th century glass. He was also an animal lover. His wife, Irene Haupt, wrote: “Our house was always full of cats, birds, fish and our daughter’s guinea pigs.”

In addition to his wife, the former Irene Ikner, survivors include a daughter, Vanessa Haupt-Nichols, her husband Jaime Nichols, Irene’s sister Brigitte Christine Heusch and her daughter Francesca Heusch of Munich, Germany.

A musical celebration of Charles Haupt’s life will be on November 17 @ 1 PM in the Burchfield Penney Art Center.