Paul W. Popiel is the Director of Bands at the University of Kansas, only the seventh person to hold this position in the band's 125-year history. Dr. Popiel conducts the KU Wind Ensemble, directs the graduate program in wind conducting, and guides all aspects of the university band program. His previous appointments include the Indiana University Jacobs School of Music and Oklahoma State University. He also enjoyed six years teaching in the public schools of Texas and Michigan.

Popiel has lectured and performed throughout North America, Europe, Singapore, and Japan. Recent and upcoming engagements include residencies at the University of Central Arkansas, Roosevelt University, and Wayne State University; as well as numerous all-state, region, and district honor bands across the country. He has served as the producer on two of the previous KU Wind Ensemble CDs for the Naxos label, as well as for the University of South Carolina. In 2012 Popiel will lead the KU Wind Ensemble on the latest Naxos project, "Landscapes", featuring the music of Michael Torke, Aaron Copland, and Frank Ticheli.

A proponent of distinctive new music, Popiel has commissioned and premiered numerous new works for wind ensemble and chamber winds.

Recent and upcoming premieres include music by Michael Torke, Mohammed Fairouz, David Dzubay, Kevin Walczyk, Kevin Wilt, Tamar Diesendruck, and Joni Greene.

Popiel holds degrees from Truman State University, the University of Notre Dame, and Michigan State University. A recipient of a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholarship, he also earned a Postgraduate Diploma in Twentieth-Century Music at the University of Bristol, England. Popiel was the 2003 Frank L. Battisti Conducting Fellow serving as the Resident Conductor of the Boston University Tanglewood Institute.

Paul, his wife Julie, and their two sons, Nicholas and Keith, live in Lawrence, Kansas.