Richard Kaufman has devoted much of his musical life to conducting and supervising music for film and television productions, as well as performing film and classical music in concert halls and on recordings. The 2012-2013 concert season marks his twenty-second season as Principal Pops Conductor of Orange County’s Pacific Symphony. He also holds the permanent title of Pops Conductor Laureate with the Dallas Symphony, and is in his eighth season with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concert series, “Friday Night at the Movies”.
He regularly appears as a guest conductor with symphony orchestras throughout the United States and around the world including Cleveland, Atlanta, Pittsburgh, St. Louis, Houston, the National Symphony in Washington DC, London, Calgary, Edmonton, Liverpool, the RTE Concert Orchestra in Dublin, Rotterdam and the Malaysian Philharmonic. In addition to conducting “traditional” concert presentations, he often leads performances of complete film scores in concert, synchronizing the music to the actual film as it is shown on the screen above the orchestra. These legendary film titles include “the Wizard of Oz”, “Psycho”, “Casablanca”, “The Bride of Frankenstein”, “Pirates of the Caribbean”, and various silent films.

In October, 2011, he conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in a concert of the film music of Dimitri Tiomkin. The recording of this concert has recently been released to rave reviews on the LSO LIVE label.
He received the 1993 Grammy Award in the category of Best Pop Instrumental Performance. In addition to his two recordings with the London Symphony Orchestra, he has recorded CDs with the Nuremberg Symphony, the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, and the Brandenburg Philharmonic in Berlin.

He has conducted for performers including John Denver, Andy Williams, Mary Martin, Nanette Fabray, Sir James Galway, Diana Krall, Chris Botti, The Pointer Sisters, The Beach Boys, Peter Paul and Mary, Robert Goulet, David Copperfield, The Righteous Brothers, and Art Garfunkel.
As a violinist, he performed on numerous film and television scores including "Jaws", “Close Encounters of the Third Kind”, “Saturday Night Fever”, and (in a moment of desperation) "Animal House". He has recorded with artists including John Denver, Burt Bacharach, Neil Sedaka, The Carpenters, and Ray Charles.

He joined the Music Department of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios in 1984 as Music Coordinator, and for the next 18 years supervised music for MGM. He received two Emmy Award nominations, one for the animated series, "The Pink Panther" in the category of Outstanding Music Direction and Composition, and another for Outstanding Original Song co-authored for the series, "All Dogs Go to Heaven”. For the MGM television series “In the Heat of the Night”, he composed songs with Actor/Producer Carroll O’Connor and conducted the scores for films including “Guarding Tess” and “Jungle to Jungle”.

As a unique part of his career in film, Richard has coached various actors in musical roles including Jack Nicholson, Dudley Moore, and Tom Hanks.

He has served as Music Director and Conductor for numerous musicals, including a National Tour of “Sweet Charity” starring Juliet Prowse, the First National Tours of “Company” (for Hal Prince) and “Two Gentlemen of Verona” (for the New York Shakespeare Festival). He also conducting numerous musicals for the Los Angeles and San Francisco Civic Light Operas (for one of these, he was nominated by the San Francisco Theater Critics for Outstanding Music Direction).

In April of 2012, he received the "Distinguished Alumni Award" from his alma mater, California State University at Northridge. While a student at CSUN, he composed the University's Alma Mater and Fight Song. In May, 2008, He was the keynote speaker for the CSUN Honors Convocation Ceremony. He has appeared as a guest speaker at various universities including USC, Georgia, and the California State Universities at Northridge and Fullerton. He is a member of the Music Advisory Board of the Young Musicians Foundation.

Born in Los Angeles, he began violin studies at age 7, played in the Peter Meremblum California Junior Symphony, and was a member of the Young Musicians Foundation Debut Orchestra. He attended the Berkshire Music Festival at Tanglewood in the Fellowship program, and earned a B.A. in Music from California State University Northridge. He lives in Southern California with his wife, Gayle, a former dancer in film, television and on Broadway. His daughter, Whitney is a graduate (with honors) from Chapman University in Orange, California, and for two and half years was a member of the cast of the National Tour of “Mama Mia”.

He is proud to be represented by Opus 3 Artists.