About Dana Kaufman

Hailed as a “whirlwind” (Gramophone) and “powerfully funny” (The Observer), composer Dana Kaufman creates work that is as intellectually “ingeniously derived” as it is vibrant (Sequenza 21). Her pieces have found homes around the world, from Carnegie Hall and the National Gugak Center (South Korea) to more unconventional spaces like Opera on Tap and the Pacific Science Center. Whether she’s being commissioned by the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and Washington National Opera, the Louisville Ballet, or GRAMMY-winner Nadia Shpachenko, Dana brings a passion for narrative and drama to her work as both a composer and librettist.

A recipient of a Fulbright Research Fellowship in Estonia, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, OPERA America’s Opera Grants for Women Composers: Discovery Grant (supported by the Virginia B. Toulmin Foundation), and five American Prize honors, Dana is a frequent speaker at international venues on queer opera and gender diversity in composition, topics she champions with a genuine desire to shake up the status quo.

A lifelong storyteller, Dana grew up telling tales around the campfire, became a high school Congressional Debate champion, and is now an educator who shares the importance of storytelling as a human necessity. She has worked with incarcerated students, spoken publicly about the voice and civil liberties, and developed university courses such as her “Creating Micro-Operas” class. Dana received her Bachelor of Arts in Music and Russian (magna cum laude) from Amherst College and her Master of Music in Composition from New England Conservatory. She is now a Centennial Medalist of University of Miami Frost School of Music, from which she received her Doctor of Musical Arts in Composition.

When Dana isn’t composing or teaching as Associate Professor in Music Composition at University of California, Riverside, you can find her plotting her next mediocre stand-up comedy routine with the same whirlwind energy she brings to her scores.