"I was interested in all three subjects, but I wasn't sure which ones were most important to me," he said. "So I tried all three. Amazingly it worked out in terms of classes and scheduling."
The sounds of music
Growing up in a house filled with music, Kupfer said that he was always interested in playing and listening. "My dad is an amateur musician, and I was exposed [to music] as a child," he said. Kupfer began playing violin in kindergarten but switched to the bassoon in fifth grade.
However, while honing his performance skills Kupfer discovered a desire to learn more about the "other side" of music: the theory. "During my freshman and sophomore years I began to explore the theory and decided to follow that path during my final two years here," he said.
Those final two years culminated with an initially unplanned thesis. "I was not going to write a thesis because I was triple majoring already. But I took a string quartet class with Professor [of Music Jenny] Kallick this fall and she suggested that I could expand my final paper into a thesis."
Kupfer only decided that he was going to write a thesis in December. "It was a big decision. It had to work out with my classes and somehow it did." But Kupfer was wary of taking on another time- and work-intensive project because he still had to take both German and computer science major requirements in the spring. "Balancing the three took up all of my time and was quite stressful at moments" he said. "But in the end the time and energy I put into it was worth it because it all worked out just fine."
Kupfer's 125-page thesis, "Beethoven and Shostakovich: Culmination and Thwarted Expectations," was rewarded with the Mishkin Prize for the best senior thesis on a critical or musical topic.
Next year, with his Fulbright, Kupfer will pursue a project entitled "The (Mis)Treatment of Opera in the Former GDR" in the department of music-sociology at Humboldt University. He will be conducting research in the German Music Archive in Berlin on the reinterpretation of German operas, especially those of Mozart and Wagner, in East Berlin. "My research will initially concentrate on the Komische Opera [the main opera house in East Berlin], but I hope to expand it to include others in the former GDR."
Renaissance man
Along with his lifelong involvement with music, Kupfer also had an abiding interest in German. "I grew up speaking German at home," he said. Here, through his German major, he learned about German history, literature and culture, which "I felt I severely lacked before Amherst. I don't just feel like I simply learned the material, but in many instances I feel I was able to look much deeper into the subject area."
Similar to his other majors, Kupfer's interest in computer science emerged from an interest he had before coming to Amherst. "Early on I really thought I was going to be a hardcore CS major," he said. "But I was unhappy with one of the earlier classes, so I was no longer sure if that was what I wanted to do. I was really interested in web design and programming, but that was not offered here at all." Kupfer decided to continue in the department hoping things would get better-which they did. But other things began to interest him as well. "I continued with the major in hopes of being more 'marketable' later on, but it was never really a passion of mine. In the end, I realized I only had a few classes left, so I figured I should finish up the major."
Outside the classroom, Kupfer found time to hold down a full extracurricular schedule. In addition to playing bassoon in orchestra and chamber groups all four years at Amherst, he has been an active member of the German Club for all four years and even was the German House president during his sophomore and junior years. He was also a web editor for The Student.
On top of all this, Kupfer played ultimate frisbee for four years. "It was relaxing and fun to play a low-key sport with a great bunch of people," he said. "You should always be able to take a break and have some fun. You can work as hard as you want, but you need to leave time for the things that you love to do and for having some fun."
Kupfer can not find enough words to express how wonderful a time he has had at Amherst. The school has met the expectations he held before entering in August of 1997-just three months after his sister graduated. "I knew and had visited the school a bunch of times," he explained. "I wanted small, and I didn't want an urban setting. [Amherst] just seemed right, so I applied early. I would recommend this place to anyone."
"It's sad that my time here is coming to an end, but I'm looking forward," he said. But, he joked, "Right now I'm so busy it doesn't feel like anything is coming to a close all that quickly."