Hungry Ocean Music

Geoff Kaufman Appearing

at the

Hungry Ocean Conference at Brown University

Saturday, April 23 at 1:00 p.m., at the John Carter Brown Library

Geoff Kaufman began singing sailor songs with Stout at Fraunces Tavern in downtown Manhattan for Op’ Sail  ‘76, and went on to perform with them at venues throughout New England.  In 1980, Stout was invited to the 1st annual Sea Music Festival at Mystic Seaport, which eventually led to Geoff’s employment there, where for fifteen years he supervised a staff of  seven musicians and oversaw the presentation of 19th-century sailors music at the museum and outside in schools or at special functions.  During those years he also directed the museum’s annual Sea Music Festival, the largest and longest running event of its kind in America, and he has now stepped back into the role of the festival’s Director.

Over the years Geoff has presented special sea music performances and lecture/demonstrations at the Maritime Center in Norwalk, CT, the U.S.S. Constitution Museum in Boston, the San Francisco Maritime Museum, the Wooden Boat Foundation in Port Townsend, WA and the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum in St. Michaels, MD, as well as on board the tall ships Gazela in Philadelphia and Elissa in Galveston.  His first solo album, Fair Stood The Wind, released in 1987, is his tribute to the sea and its hold upon the human imagination as reflected in songs from the eighteenth century to the present.

Internationally, Geoff has helped develop strong ties between Mystic Seaport and Le Chasse Marée in Douarnenez, France, acting as a consultant for the use of chanteys at festivals in Brittany in 1989 and 1991, and being featured as a performer with his group Forebitter at festivals every year since.  One of the group’s recordings, American Sea Chanteys (Chants des Marins Americains) was commissioned by the French. Forebitter has also performed in Lisbon, Portugal, and in major festivals in England and Holland.  Geoff’s solo performances in Europe include several tours of Poland, festivals in Hull, England and Rotterdam, Holland, a special “Citoyen du Monde” concert in Dunkirk, and being featured at  the October  Shanties Festival in Workum, the Netherlands.

Back at home, Geoff’s many years of singing with the Sloop Singers for the Hudson River Sloop Clearwater resulted in his live concert album, Tree of Life, while work with the USS Constitution Museum in Boston lead to the release of his latest album, Huzza Old Ironsides!  Her Life and Times in Song. His most recent album,Geoff Kaufman’s Sea Song Sampler has met with great acclaim and he is now working on his next project, Restless Waters.