Paula M. Kimper (Composer), a 1979 graduate of the Eastman School of Music, is active in New York City as a composer for opera, theater, film, and dance.

THE CAPTIVATION OF EUNICE WILLIAMS, with libretto by Harley Erdman, was commissioned by Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, to commemorate the 300th anniversay of the Deerfield massacre of 1704. The opera had its world premiere at Deerfield Academy's Reid Theatre in July 2004, and is now touring internationaly. Most recent performances were in the Ohrid Summer Festival in Macedonia in July 2008, and at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian in October 2006. The Pioneer Valley Symphony Orchestra and Chorus under the direction of Paul Phillips, premiered THE SUITE FROM THE CAPTIVATION OF EUNICE WILLIAMS. Kimper is at work on THE BRIDGE OF SAN LUIS REY, a folk opera based on Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize winning novel. A workshop was produced by Old Deerfield Productions on October 25 and 26 at the Eric Carle Museum of Picturebook Art in Amherst, MA. "The Suite from The Bridge of San Luis Rey" was prermiered by the Danbury Community Orchestra under the musical direction of Stephen M. Smith on May 6, 2007. Excerpts from BRIDGE were heard at OPERA America's "New Works Sampler" in Pittsburgh in June 2004. Her first opera, Patience & Sarah, with libretto by Wende Persons, had its world premiere in Lincoln Center Festival 98, was produced in Oakland, California, in June 2007. The Act II duet, "I want to live," on CRI's release Lesbian American Composers, won two 1999 GLAMA Awards. The European premiere in England was produced by Laure Meloy and OperaAmazons.

Ms. Kimper has composed music for theater since 1986, producing scores and sound designs for the Boston Post Road Stage Company, Westport Country Playhouse, Stamford Theatre Works, The White Barn Theater, and Old Deerfield productions. Her score for Virginia Scott's new translation of Moliere's DON JUAN was performed on guitar by the composer in July 2007 in Deerfield and on December 1 at the Academy of Music in Northampton, MA. For the White Barn Theater in Westport, CT, and reknowned directed Burry Fredrik, Ms. Kimper created the music and sound design for SWANSONG, by Patrick Page, which permiered in August 2002. Washington Shakespeare Company's May 2002 production of MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, directed by Michael Comlish, featured two Kimper songs. She composed six new songs to poems by Heine for "Heinrich Heine: Doppelgänger," a 2001 AOP production, conceived and directed by Gabriele Jakobi. 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, dancer/choreographer Amy Pivar in an ongoing collaboration called Songs for Solo Dance and Voice. March 2007 saw the premiere of EMPTINESS, A SUITE OF MAHADEVIYAKKA commissioned by Pivar for performances at Dance New Amsterdam in New York City. 10 of 10,000: Mermaid Lullabys, and Skinny Marys Talk About Faith, both scored for two voices and cello, set poetry by Elaine Valby and were commissioned by Seraphim Trio. Ms. Kimper's score for dancer/choreographer Richard Daniels, BONUS ROUND, with text by Aaron Shurin, had its NYC premeire April 2-6, 2003 at the Connelly Theater, featuring Nurrit Tilles at the piano. The world premiere took place in the August 2002 Toronto Fringe Festival. Part 2, SKY PANELS, was presented at the 92nd Street Y in November 2001. She has received five commissions from the Walt Whitman Project for songs and fanfares. BROKEN TALE OF MOUSE, a score for dancer Amy Pivar and playwright Freda Rosen, was produced at Wings Theatre in May 2000. "Where everything is music," an SATB setting of Rumi (translated by Coleman Barks), was premiered at the GALA 2000 Festival of Choruses by SING OUT! PROUD BROOKLYN, and performed since by The Shrewsbury Chorale and the Dalton Alumni Chorale under the direction of Stephen M. Smith, and by the Stonewall Chorale under the direction of Cynthia Powell.

Ms. Kimper has composed for films and television since 1987. An award winning new film, GLACIER BAY, directed by Douglas Moser, features music by Kimper and was released in the fall of 2006. Flight of the HARMONIC MESSENGER, a one-hour meditation on Sacred Sites of the Earth, Ms. Kimper's 1993 CD release, has aired on New Age radio programs worldwide. Her music for film, documentaries and TV has been heard nationally on network, PBS and cable television.