Nikolai Kaufman

Rousse, 1925

Dr. Nikolai Kaufman is Bulgaria's foremost ethnomusicologist and folklorist. His authority on the subject has been acknowledged internationally, with scholarly entries in such references as the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. Kaufman is also recognized worldwide as a teacher, author and composer. He is senior researcher in the Institute for Musicology of the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences. His work is directly connected with the systematic gathering and recording of folk song models of which there are over 15,000 exemplars. Kaufman has focussed special attention on folk heterophony, as well as the musical characteristics of different regions. Besides an erudite author of numerous scholarly works and leader in contemporary ethnomusicology, Kaufman has dedicated many years to making arrangements of folk songs for folk choir, as well as having composed original works in the folk style. In addition to his dedication to Bulgarian folk traditions is his research into the urban songs of the time of Bulgaria's liberation (1878), as well as his interest and profound knowledge of the Jewish vocal traditions.