Victor Zupanc

Victor Zupanc, born in Victoria, British Columbia, began his musical career studying violin and piano at the age of six at the Royal Conservatory of Music in Victoria, British Columbia. After receiving his Bachelor of Music Degree at the University of Victoria he went on to earn his Masters Degree in Music Composition at the University of California at San Diego in 1983.

Since 1983 Mr. Zupanc has been one of the most prolific theater artists in America involved in nearly 300 theatrical productions as composer, musical director, sound designer and performer. He has worked at some of the most respected theaters in America including, in New York, The Brooklyn Academy of Music, Playwrights Horizon, The Joyce Theater, The Acting Company and The New Victory Theater; in Minneapolis, The Guthrie Theater, Theatre de la Jeune Lune and The Mixed Blood Theater, as well as The San Diego Repertory Theatre, The La Jolla Playhouse, The Missouri Rep, The Berkeley Rep and The Kennedy Center among many others. His music has been heard abroad in China, Japan, South America, Great Britain, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Artists that Mr. Zupanc has worked with include Des McAnuff, Bill Irwin, Joe Dowling, Marion McClinton, Kevin Kling, Stephen Sondheim, Randy Newman and David Byrne.

Mr. Zupanc is a two-time recipient of The Los Angeles Theater Critics Circle Award for his theater scores (A Man’s A Man, director: Robert Woodruff and Nineteen Fifty One, director: Ann Bogart) and was twice awarded with a Hollywood DramaLogue Award for his work, most notably for the acclaimed San Diego/New York production of Romulus Linney’s Holy Ghost!

Since 1989 he has held the position of Resident Music Director/Composer at the Tony Award winning Children’s Theater Company of Minneapolis (CTC). At CTC, Mr. Zupanc composes scores and conducts orchestras comprised of the finest professional musicians in the country.

Mr. Zupanc has, on several occasions, been invited to compose, lecture and conduct orchestras in South America, China and Japan. Numerous grants including McKnight (3 time McKnight Artist Fellow), Fullbright, Jerome and Otto Bremer Foundations. He was a 2005 Bush Foundation Artist Fellow. In 2004 he was Composer-In-Residence with the renowned vocal group, The Rose Ensemble, who featured Mr. Zupanc on their 2004 CD, Road to Compostela. In 2005, Innova Records released a CD of his ballet titled, Sun and Moon. Mr. Zupanc composed the theme music for the popular National Public Radio program Krista Tippett on Being which is broadcast nationally. In 2011 the world premiere of For the Birds by Zupanc, commissioned by world renowned new music ensemble Zeitgeist and featuring acclaimed storyteller Kevin Kling. In 2013 The Dakota Valley Symphony premiered Zupanc’s The Burning Wisdom of Finn McCool for full orchestra and narrator (Kevin Kling). The Minneapolis Star Tribune called this a “…masterful orchestral piece that captured every nuance and created every mood for Kevin Kling’s entertaining and often suspenseful reading.”

In 2001 Mr. Zupanc scored his first feature film, The Operator, by Jon Dichter, which has screened worldwide. Since then films featuring Zupanc scores have been critically acclaimed at numerous film festivals including Sundance, Los Angeles International Film Festival, GenArt in New York, South By SouthWest, Santa Barbara International Film Festival, San Diego Latino Film Festival and the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival.