Tom Kaufmann
A Michigan native, Tom grew up in Hastings, a small town near Grand Rapids, and worked as an afternoon disc jockey at WBCH while still in high school. He began his career as a professional musician over thirty years ago at a night club in Osaka, Japan. Since that time he has entertained audiences as a soloist and with a number of groups in the San Francisco area, on Florida’s Gulf Coast, and throughout the midwest.
Tom moved to Northern Lower Michigan in 1979 to work as the morning DJ. at WVOY (now WKHQ) in Charlevoix, and began playing piano at the Weathervane Inn there. Kaufmann left broadcasting in 1981 to perform full-time, and also began writing and producing jingles with local radio legend Bill Vogel. He received two Michigan “Addy” awards for jingles he wrote for Audio Graph Productions, in Okemos, Michigan.
After five years at the Weathervane Inn, and a return tour of Japan in 1984, Tom returned to Northern Michigan, and played for several years as a soloist and as the house band at Boyne Mountain, Shanty Creek Resort, and for five summers at Charlevoix’s historic Grey Gables Inn. It was there that he perfected his popular exit; riding a unicycle through the bar while playing the William Tell Overture on a concertina and harmonica.
From 1993 to 2000 he held the position of Entertainment Director for the Grand Traverse Resort, and performed in the Trillium Lounge, at the top of the resort’s tower, as a soloist, with his six piece band “Lake Effect”, and with his trio “Altitude.”
In 2001 be began performing at Traverse City’s famous Park Place Hotel, where he currently entertains.
Tom and his wife Judy Childs have two children, their son Miles and daughter, Elise.
