| Paula M. Kimper, b. 1956, a graduate of the Eastman School of Music, is active in New York City as a composer for opera, theater, dance, film, and song. Ms. Kimper's first opera, PATIENCE & SARAH, with librettist Wende Persons, is based on the novel by Isabel Miller and premiered in Lincoln Center Festival 98. The Act II Duet, "I want to live," on CRI's release Lesbian American Composers, won two 1999 GLAMA Awards. Further productions have taken place in Denver, Chicago, England, and Oakland, CA. (More at: www.patienceandsarah.com.) In 2002 Ms. Kimper was commissioned by the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association to compose an opera for the 300th anniversary of the 1704 Raid on Deerfield, Massachusetts. THE CAPTIVATION OF EUNICE WILLIAMS, with libretto by Harley Erdman, premiered in July 2004, at the Reid Theatre of Deerfield Academy. It was performanced at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, in Washington, DC, in October, 2006, and toured the Balkan region from July - September 2008. Old Deerfield Productions has commissioned TRUTH, an opera about Sojourner Truth, which will premiere in February 2012 at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA. Excerpts from Kimper's opera based on Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY were featured in the "New Works Sampler" at Opera America's National Conference in Pittsburgh, PA. The Orchestra Suite from the Bridge of San Luis Rey was premiered by The Danbury Community Orchestra in May 2007 under the direction of Stephen M. Smith. Ms. Kimper has composed music for theater since 1986, producing scores and sound designs for Old Deerfield Productions, the Boston Post Road Stage Company, Stamford Theatre Works, Washington Shakespeare Company, Westport Country Playhouse, and The White Barn Theater. She performed and scored Don Juan, a new translation of Moliere in 2007. Douglas Moser's A CHRISTMAS CAROL, featuring Kimper's score, won the 1992 Connecticut Critics Circle Award for Best Adaptation of a Classic.
Ms. Kimper appears as guitarist with singer Elaine Valby, and dancer/choreographer Amy Pivar in an ongoing collaboration called Songs for Solo Dance and Voice. The trio performed at New York's 92nd Street Y in December 2009. March 2007 saw the premiere of EMPTINESS, commissioned by Pivar for performances at Dance New Amsterdam in New York City, which can be veiwed at www.viddler.com. Kimper's score BONUS ROUND, for dancer/choreographer Richard Daniels, premiered in the August 2002 Toronto Fringe Festival, and premiered in New York at the Connelly Theater in April 2003. BROKEN TALE OF MOUSE, with Pivar and Rosen, premiered at Wings Theatre in 2000.
Ms. Kimper has composed for films and television since 1987. An award winning film, GLACIER BAY, directed by Douglas Moser, features music by Kimper and was released in the fall of 2006. Other scores include music for: NINGALOO: Feast of the Whale Sharks, produced by Discovery; Health in America, and Does Making Things Matter? produced by WQED-TV in Pittsburgh; and Canal Street: River to River, produced by Frank Silverstein and WNYC-TV. Flight of the HARMONIC MESSENGER, a 1993 CD, has aired worldwide.
Kimper can also be found on FaceBook, YouTube and LinkedIn, and her recordings can be found on CDBaby.com and iTunes.com. She is a professional member of BMI, Opera America, The Field, and The American Music Center, and serves on the board of Old Deerfield Productions and The Phoenix Concerts. Kimper is Artistic Director of Salon Harlem, which presents concerts in the West Harlem home of Helen Rogers to celebrate and showcase neighborhood artists in a salon setting to nourish, challenge, entertain, and build a diverse neighborhood audience. In 1993 Kimper formed Once in a Blue Moon Music Publishing Company to supply her scores and recordings to producers, performers and libraries. Kimper's complete catalog was recently acquired by the Loeb Music Library of Harvard University.
Paula M. Kimper (917) 836-7564 paulakimper@gmail.com |