Kaufmann was born in Karlovy Vary to Julius and Josefine Antonia. He studied at the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin training under Franz Schreker and Curt Sachs between 1927 and 1930. He then studied in Prague under Gustav Becking and Paul Nettl. He graduated in 1934 with a dissertation on Gustav Mahler but refused a degree in protest of his ordinarius Gustav Becking who was a Nazi supporter. He married Gerti Hermann, a niece of Franz Kafka and the family fled Nazi Germany in 1934. His father died when the family reached the Czech border. He moved to India and worked as a director of music at the All India Radio in Bombay from 1937 to 1946. His contemporary John Foulds, known for banning the harmonium from Indian radio, worked in New Delhi. He founded the Bombay Chamber Music Society along with others like Mehli Mehta. He also researched Indian and Asian music, writing about them in journals. He composed the for All India Radio in 1936. During World War II he served in the British Navy and after the war he tried to return to Prague but settled in London and composed music for J. Arthur Rank Films in England from 1947 to 48. He then moved to the United States and taught at Halifax. On the recommendation of Sir Ernest MacMillan he became a conductor for the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra from 1948 to 1956. He married the pianist Freda Trepel in 1950. He then served as a professor of musicology at the University of Indiana from 1957 until his death in 1984 in Bloomington.
Works
His music related books include:
Altindien
Musical Notations of the Orient: Notational Systems of Continental, East, South and Central Asia
Musical References in the Chinese Classics
The Ragas of North India
The Ragas of South India: A Catalogue of Scalar Material
Selected Musical Terms of Non-Western Cultures: A Notebook-Glossary
Tibetan Buddhist Chant: Musical Notations and Interpretations of a Song Book by the Bkah Brgyud Pa and Sa Skya Pa Sects
He also published a number of research papers and record reviews especially in ethnomusicology. After coming in contact with Verrier Elwin, he studied Gond music. He composed several operas including Der grosse Dorin, Esther, Die weisse Gottin, Anasuya, radio opera The Scarlet Letter, which was very well received at its premiere by the Opera Department of the Indiana University School of Music in the early 1960s.