Biography

Equally at home as a solo pianist, collaborator, and composer, Charles Berofsky seeks to engage audiences through a myriad of styles and genres of music. Charles grew up in Ann Arbor, Michigan and began piano lessons when he was six years old. He also developed an interest in composition from a young age and started organ lessons at age 14.

Charles was recently awarded First Prize, along with the Orchestra Prize, at the 2024 Campillos International Piano Competition (Campillos, Spain). He has been a prizewinner at the New York International Piano Competition (Third Prize to a solo performer & First Prize for the piano four-hands ensemble), the Thousand Islands International Piano Competition (First Prize, senior division), and the Chautauqua piano competition (Second Prize). Charles has also won concerto competitions at both the New England Conservatory in Boston and the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York; in the latter instance, at age 20, he was one of the youngest students to ever win a concerto competition at Eastman. For his compositions, he has received a commission from the American Guild of Organists and four prizes from the Eastman School of Music. Other awards include First Prize at the 2018 Chicago College of Performing Arts Young Composer Competition and First Prizes at the Dearborn and Dexter Youth Artist Concerto Competitions in southeastern Michigan.

Charles has attended festivals and participated in master classes throughout the United States and Europe, including the Lieven Foundation in Vienna, Taos School of Music, Mozarteum Internationale Sommerakademie, and Chautauqua Institution. He has had the opportunity to work with pianists such as Malcolm Bilson, Davide Cabassi, Ya-Fei Chuang, Andreas Frölich, Alon Goldstein, Christopher Hinterhuber, Alexander Kobrin, Robert Levin, Andreas Staier, and Arie Vardi, as well as working closely in chamber music settings with Robert McDonald, Yeesun Kim, Angelo Xiang Yu, and Thomas Sauer. He has given solo recitals at Temple Emanu-El of New York, the New England Conservatory, the Eastman School of Music, and the University of Michigan School of Music, Theatre and Dance; and he has been featured as a guest artist with the Jupiter Symphony Chamber Players and the Pressenda Chamber Players.

An avid chamber musician, Charles is the pianist of Trio Sponte, which was the Grand Prize winner of the 2024 Coltman Chamber Music Competition, Senior Division. Trio Sponte was also selected for the New England Conservatory’s prestigious Honors Ensemble program for the 2023-24 school year; the yearly award comes with a stipend, a recital in Jordan Hall, and various community engagements. In 2023 he was one of five NEC students to be selected for the Borromeo String Quartet’s yearly Guest Artist Award. Charles was previously the pianist of the Newbury Trio, an NEC Honors Ensemble during the 2022-23 school year. He is also the pianist of the Berofsky Piano Quartet, along with his father, violinist Aaron Berofsky; his mother, violinist/violist Kathryn Votapek; and his brother, cellist Sebastian Berofsky.

Charles is currently studying piano with Antti Siirala at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München, as well as harpsichord and fortepiano with Christine Schornsheim. He obtained his Master’s degree from the New England Conservatory and his Bachelor’s degree from the Eastman School of Music. He has studied piano with HaeSun Paik, Alan Chow, Logan Skelton, and John Ellis; composition with Ricardo Zohn-Muldoon, Robert Morris, David Liptak, and Carlos Sanchez-Gutierrez; harpsichord with Peter Sykes, Michael Sponseller, and Lisa Goode Crawford; and organ with Scott Van Ornum.