Kat ZimmermAN

Kat Zimmerman is a four time ASCAP+ award-winning composer, lyricist, writer, performer, and proud (and busy!) mom to 10 year old twins.  

Current projects include recording a cast album for the new family musical HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS with producer Angela Parrish (The Adventures of Hamster & Gretel, Pokerface), as well as writing a film adaptation with co-writer Makena Metz. HOME FOR THE HOLIDAYS is an intersectional adaptation of A CHRISTMAS CAROL, developed with support from the Alliance for Jewish Theatre TheatreMachers program and the Dramatists Guild. Its first reading was on the fifth night of Hanukkah in December 2022 at New Musicals, Inc., Los Angeles. 

KELLYANNE, a new musical about former White House senior advisor Kellyanne Conway, premiered in June 2022 at the Broadwater Main Stage in Hollywood and is currently in development at NMI as a full length work.

Projects in the works include a musical about abortion rights and activism, an opera about actress and inventor Hedy Lamarr, and a song cycle about the life of Paulette Goodman, a holocaust survivor and prominent LGBTQIA+ activist.

Kat and Stacey Weingarten (Sesame Street) created The Turkey Cake Song (Nailed It), starring Lisa Helmi Johanson (POTUS: Or, Behind Every Great Dumbass are Seven Women Trying to Keep Him Alive).

The musical HEARTLAND, with themes of gender identity and school shootings, had its premiere reading at NMI in March 2022. HEARTLAND was inspired by the 15 minute BUNDLED TOGETHER (Hollywood Fringe Festival) and a 2020 Zoom reading uniting cast members from New York and Los Angeles. 

Kat has a passion for uniting creative arts and activism, exploring themes of gender identity, inclusivity, LGBTQIA+ rights and challenges, neurodiversity, gun violence, motherhood, mental health challenges, women's rights, and climate change.

Her music has been featured at Carnegie Hall and in the Emmy award-winning HBO documentary AUTISM: THE MUSICAL. She has collaborated with artists Jack Black, Stephen Stills, Rev Run, Rickey Minor and the American Idol Band, and the Agape International Choir with Rickie Byars Beckwith. 

Family musicals include THE COURAGE CLUB, FEINSTEIN'S DREAMS, EVERYDAY HEROES and others, performed at the Broad Theater, the Geffen Playhouse and the Odyssey Theatre in Los Angeles, in association with The Miracle Project at the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts, an innovative theater company for neurodiverse performers. 

Originally from New York and raised in the midwest, Kat began her career as a classical singer and pianist with a passion for contemporary music, performing with Absolute Ensemble under conductor Kristjan Jårvi and the Manhattan Contemporary Ensemble, premiering works by Tobias Picker (Symphony for Soprano and Orchestra), Ernst Widmer, Aaron Jay Kernis, and William Kraft. Kat has performed at the United Nations, Davies Hall, San Francisco; the Aspen Music Festival, the Herbert von Karajan Center, Vienna; Wigmore Hall, London, Nice Festival D’Été, France; Fondation Royaumont, France; the Aberdeen International Music Festival, and music festivals in Spain, Italy, and Israel. She has been featured in operas including The Rake’s Progress, The Yellow Wallpaper, Cosi fan Tutte, Don Giovanni, La Boheme,  and MacBeth.  

Her passion for neurodiverse children and teens began during psychology studies in college, researching autism and musical savants. This inspired her to create and facilitate songwriting and recording workshops for children and teens as founding music director and composer for The Miracle Project. In addition, she created innovative programs throughout Los Angeles for the HELP Group and the Country School, to foster positive self-esteem and self-advocacy through creative expression. Kat also served as music director of the Moses-Aaron Project at Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services, a program enabling children and teens with autism and other special needs to engage in personal spiritual practice, read Torah, and become Bar and Bat Mitzvot. 

If you've read this far, you've almost made it through!  Kat and her awesome husband Tom wrote the children's book FUN WITH FRED (Higher Ground Press), about a broken down, forgotten truck that gets a second chance to ride again!

Kat received her M.M. from the Manhattan School of Music, B.M. from the Eastman School of Music, and is an Interlochen Arts Academy graduate, with additional studies at NYU, Vienna Conservatory, UCLA for composition/electronic music, Kirtan with Jai Uttal at Esalen, and Indian classical vocal music at the Ali Akbar College of Music. She is a lifetime language lover, fluent in German, French, Italian, Latin, and currently studying Spanish, Hawaiian, and Indonesian in Duolingo-those league challenges are tough! 

Kat is proudest of her role as mom to twins, who inspire her to create with passion and purpose every day.