Charles Kemper

Dr. Charles Kemper has won national competitions and has performed throughout Europe and Ukraine. He has served as Calvary Church’s organist and accompanist since 2005. Born in Houston, TX, Charles has degrees in piano performance from Cincinnati’s College-Conservatory of Music, the University of Houston, and Yale University. He was the pianist/accompanist for VocalEssence for twenty-two years and was an instructor of piano at the University of Northwestern St. Paul for twelve years, also teaching for several years at St. Olaf college and at Transylvania University in Kentucky. He was a collaborative pianist/ staff accompanist at Bethel University and at the University of St. Thomas. Dr. Kemper is proficient in jazz and popular styles of playing and performs frequently in the twin cities with jazz groups as a singer and keyboardist. Charles also composes and arranges for his Ebony, Ivory and Spruce Trio (clarinet, piano and violin), performed chamber music with Minnesota Orchestra and St. Paul Chamber Orchestra musicians and has recorded albums with various groups and soloists. His major teachers included famed pianists Abbey Simon, Claude Frank, Boris Berman, Peter Frankl and Ruth Tomfohrde.