Bio
Described by The New Yorker as "one of the great originals of her generation," composer/performer/writer Kate Soper has been creating unique and uncategorizable musico-theatrical
spectacles for over a decade. A Pulitzer Prize finalist and Rome Prize fellow, she has received awards and fellowships
from the Guggenheim and Koussevitzky Foundations and the American Academy of Letters, and has been commissioned by Miller
Theatre, Alarm Will Sound, and the New York Philharmonic. Her large-scale works include the
monodramas Voices from the Killing Jar and IPSA DIXIT and the operas Here Be Sirens, The Romance of the Rose, and The Hunt.
Praised by The New York Times for her "lithe
voice and riveting presence," Soper performs frequently as a new music soprano. She has premiered works by Sky Macklay, George Lewis, Alex Mincek, and Eric Wubbels, and has been featured as a composer/vocalist on the New York City-based MATA festival and Miller Theatre Composer Portraits series, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's MusicNOW series, and the LA Philharmonic's Green Umbrella Series. As a non-fiction and creative writer, she has been published by McSweeney's Quarterly, PAJ, the Massachusetts Review, Theory and Practice, and the Journal of Interdisciplinary Voice Studies.
Soper is a co-director and performer for Wet Ink, a New York-based new music ensemble dedicated to seeking out adventurous music across aesthetic boundaries. She is the Iva Dee Hiatt Professor of Music at Smith College.
Interviews and Podcasts
"Kate Soper Returns to Opera with a Story Medieval and Modern" (The New York Times, 2023) article and interview
"An Eagerly Awaited Opera, Delayed by the Pandemic, Opens at Last" (The New York Times, 2023) article and interview
"From Medieval Romance to Contemporary Opera: Philosophy, Eros, Allegory" (PAJ, 2022) interview and libretto excerpt
Miller Theater: Mission Commission Season 2, podcast
Lexical Tones Episode 107 (2019), podcast
Adagio for Things S2E6: Clapping Music (2019), podcast (interview begins ca. 29')
Resonant Bodies Episode 47: Kate Soper (2019), podcast
"Five Questions to Kate Soper About Ipsa Dixit" (I Care if You Listen, October 2018), intervew
"Between Singing and Speaking" (The Organist, October 2018), podcast
An interview with Kate Soper (Believer Magazine, 2018), interview
"She tackled Aristolte in an opera. Next up: Medieval French couplets" (The New York Times, 2018), article and interview
"Kate Soper on IPSA DIXIT" (AXS, 2017) interview
"Kate Soper: Real Communication" (New Music Box, 2016), video interview and article
"Composer Profile: Kate Soper" (Musicakaleidoscope, 2016), article and interview
Hi-res photos
Credit Maggie Shannon, here and here
Credit Marco Giugliarelli for Civitella Ranieri Foundation, here
Credit Jim Gipe, here
Credit Gretchen Robinette, here
Credit Claudia Gori for the American Academy in Rome, here and here
