Are you looking to take your passion for music to the next level? Or maybe you’re just wanting to get started? Either way, I’m ready to help. I have fifteen years of college-level teaching experience, and I have taught privately for over twenty years. As a performer, I play regularly for Minnesota Public Radio, and on the stages of Orchestra Hall and the Ordway. If you are interested in jazz and popular music, I teach that as well. I am a member of the Minnesota Music Teachers Association and the St. Paul Piano Teachers Association. Let me help you allow music to enrich your life!

Pianist, organist and harpsichordist CHARLES KEMPER has served as Calvary Church’s organist and accompanist since 2005. A native of Houston, TX, Charles won the HS Young Artist Competition at age seventeen and performed Rachmaninoff”s Concerto #2 with the Houston Symphony. While in high school, he received his first of three fellowships to attend the Aspen Music Festival. Charles won the Cliburn scholarship to attend the Cincinnati College – Conservatory of Music, where he studied with Santos Ojeda and Eugene Pridnonoff, and graduated cum laude with a Bachelor’s degree. At the University of Houston, he studied with Abbey Simon and Ruth Tomforhde, received a Post-Baccalaureate and Master’s degree in piano performance and won the school’s concerto competition, and performed Beethoven’s Concerto #4 with the orchestra. He received Master of Musical Arts and Doctor of Musical Arts degrees from Yale University, studying with Boris Berman, Peter Frankl and Claude Frank.

He won the school’s concerto competition and performed Brahms’ Concerto #1 with the Yale Philharmonia. Following graduation from Yale, he became the Aspen Institute for the Humanities Artist-in-Residence for three years, performing recitals on a weekly basis. Dr. Kemper has performed in England, France, Germany, Ukraine, Sweden, Switzerland, Italy, the Czech Republic, Denmark and Belgium. He was pianist and accompanist for Vocal Essence for twenty-two years, and instructor of piano at St. Olaf College and Transylvania University in Lexington KY, and a collaborative pianist at Bethel University and the University of St. Thomas. For twelve years he was an instructor of piano at the University of Northwestern St. Paul, also arranging music for various vocal groups and composing for instrumental groups. Dr. Kemper performed chamber music with members of the Minnesota Orchestra and the St. Paul Chamber Orchestra for the Awakenings Concerts, benefiting the Struther’s Parkinson’s Center. Dr. Kemper has recorded CD’s with the jazz group Voice Trek, the male vocal ensemble Cantus, Vocal Essence and violinist Chad Hoopes, 2012 Artist-in-Residence for Minnesota Public Radio. As an avid singer (he was a tenor section leader for the Minnesota Chorale), he performs jazz and popular music at many venues and has been featured on Minnesota Public Radio on Prairie Home Companion.