Dana Kaufman
Name
Dana Kaufman
Bio
The work of Los Angeles-based composer Dana Kaufman focuses on disruptive opera and vocal music, accessible and inclusive stages, and the intersection of pop culture and Western classical music. Hailed as “whirlwind” (Gramophone) and “lively, engaging and moving” (Berkshire Fine Arts), Kaufman’s music has been heard throughout North America and Europe. Her works have been featured at venues and festivals such as New York Opera Fest; Contemporary Music Center of Milan; Jordan Hall; Boston New Music Festival; National Opera Week; Carlow Arts Festival; soundSCAPE Festival; Hartford Opera Theater; Charlotte New Music Festival; Spontaneous Combustion New Music Festival; Opera on Tap Chicago; the national Estonian Music Days festival; Chosen Vale International Trumpet Seminar; Hot Air Music Festival; Music Institute of Chicago’s Nichols Hall; College Music Society National Conference; Peoria Civic Center; Connecticut Summerfest; Atlas Performing Arts Center; Music by Women Festival; Baltimore War Memorial; International Clarinet Association's ClarinetFest; North American Jewish Choral Festival; Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre Fall Festival; FEASt Festival; Frontwave New Music Festival; Ravinia Festival’s One Score, One Chicago Series Youth Division; and FETA Foundation Concert Series. Kaufman’s music also has been performed by ensembles such as So Percussion, Great Noise Ensemble, Wet Ink Ensemble, ensemble PHASE, 5th Wave Collective, Third Eye Theatre Ensemble, a very small consortium, The Spatial Forces Duo, Firebird Ensemble, LNK New Music Collective, Resound Duo, Na Wai Chamber Choir, MiamiClarinet, Passepartout Duo, and performers with OperaRox Productions and the Houston Grand Opera Orchestra.
From 2012-2013, Kaufman was a Fulbright Student Research Fellow in Tallinn, Estonia, where she conducted ethnomusicology research and studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She is also the recipient of numerous other awards: ASCAP Plus Awards; Finalist, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards; Third Place in the American Prize Instrumental Chamber Music Student Division and Finalist in the Choral Music Student Division, Honorable Mention in the Chamber Music Student Division, and Semi-Finalist in the Opera/Theater/Film Division; Finalist in Hartford Opera Theater’s New in November 10 Call for Scores; University of Miami Dean’s Fellowship; Finalist, OperaRox Productions’ New Works Competition; Amherst College Edward Poole Lay Fellowship; Winner of the Ensemble Ibis Composition Competition; Finalist in the New American Voices Composition Competition; Honorable Mention in the Boston Choral Ensemble’s Commission Competition; First Runner-Up in the Black House New Operas Project Composers’ Competition; Third Place in the Amherst College College Song Composition Competition; Eric Edward Sundquist Prize in Composition; Mikhail Schweitzer Memorial Book Award; First Place in the Music Institute of Chicago’s Generation Next Composition Competition; and is a winner of the Women Composers Festival New England Score Call and flutist Orlando Cela’s “Project Extended” Score Call. Her selected “Project Extended” work, Hang Down Your Head, was released by Ravello Records on “Shadow Etchings: New Music for Flute.” She was also Composer-in-Residence of the Na Wai Chamber Choir and Lutheran Church of the Ascension (IL), and Hashkiveinu (co-composed with Richard Cohn) is published by Transcontinental Music Publications and performed at synagogues throughout North America.
A frequent speaker, particularly on composing for trans voice and her recent work Opera Kardashian, Kaufman has given invited talks at venues including the LA Opera, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, Pedagogy into Practice: Teaching Music Theory in the Twenty-First Century Conference, Tallinn University of Technology, Fulbright Enrichment Seminar in Prague on Public Space and the Arts, College Music Society National Conference, Na Wai Conductor's Institute, and the Music by Women Festival; she also was a panelist for “Gender Representation in New Opera” at New Music Gathering.
Kaufman graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College (Bachelor of Arts in Music and Russian), completed her Master of Music in Composition at New England Conservatory, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at University of Miami Frost School of Music as the first Frost student to be a Dean’s Fellow. She is Assistant Professor in Music Composition at University of California, Riverside.
From 2012-2013, Kaufman was a Fulbright Student Research Fellow in Tallinn, Estonia, where she conducted ethnomusicology research and studied composition at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre. She is also the recipient of numerous other awards: ASCAP Plus Awards; Finalist, ASCAP Morton Gould Young Composer Awards; Third Place in the American Prize Instrumental Chamber Music Student Division and Finalist in the Choral Music Student Division, Honorable Mention in the Chamber Music Student Division, and Semi-Finalist in the Opera/Theater/Film Division; Finalist in Hartford Opera Theater’s New in November 10 Call for Scores; University of Miami Dean’s Fellowship; Finalist, OperaRox Productions’ New Works Competition; Amherst College Edward Poole Lay Fellowship; Winner of the Ensemble Ibis Composition Competition; Finalist in the New American Voices Composition Competition; Honorable Mention in the Boston Choral Ensemble’s Commission Competition; First Runner-Up in the Black House New Operas Project Composers’ Competition; Third Place in the Amherst College College Song Composition Competition; Eric Edward Sundquist Prize in Composition; Mikhail Schweitzer Memorial Book Award; First Place in the Music Institute of Chicago’s Generation Next Composition Competition; and is a winner of the Women Composers Festival New England Score Call and flutist Orlando Cela’s “Project Extended” Score Call. Her selected “Project Extended” work, Hang Down Your Head, was released by Ravello Records on “Shadow Etchings: New Music for Flute.” She was also Composer-in-Residence of the Na Wai Chamber Choir and Lutheran Church of the Ascension (IL), and Hashkiveinu (co-composed with Richard Cohn) is published by Transcontinental Music Publications and performed at synagogues throughout North America.
A frequent speaker, particularly on composing for trans voice and her recent work Opera Kardashian, Kaufman has given invited talks at venues including the LA Opera, Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, Women Composers Festival of Hartford, Pedagogy into Practice: Teaching Music Theory in the Twenty-First Century Conference, Tallinn University of Technology, Fulbright Enrichment Seminar in Prague on Public Space and the Arts, College Music Society National Conference, Na Wai Conductor's Institute, and the Music by Women Festival; she also was a panelist for “Gender Representation in New Opera” at New Music Gathering.
Kaufman graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College (Bachelor of Arts in Music and Russian), completed her Master of Music in Composition at New England Conservatory, and received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition at University of Miami Frost School of Music as the first Frost student to be a Dean’s Fellow. She is Assistant Professor in Music Composition at University of California, Riverside.
