Laura Karpman

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Laura Anne Karpman (born March 1, 1959, in Los Angeles) is an American composer, whose work has included
music for film, television, video games, theater, and the concert hall. She has won four Emmy Awards for her
work. Karpman was trained at The Juilliard School, where she played jazz, and honed her skills scatting in bars.

Contents
1 Education
2 Career
3 Awards and nominations
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links
6.1 Articles and interviews

Education
Karpman worked with John Harbison at the Tanglewood Music Center, and attended Aspen Music School and the
Ecole des Arts Americaines, where she worked with Nadia Boulanger. She received her Bachelor of Music degree
from the University of Michigan, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, studying with William Bolcom and
Leslie Bassett. She received both her Doctorate and Master's degree in Music Composition at The Juilliard School,
where her principal teacher was Milton Babbitt.

Career
Compositions by Karpman have been commissioned by Tonya Pinkins, Los Angeles Opera, American Composers
Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, The Juilliard Choral Union, Pacific Serenades,[1] and percussionist Evelyn
Glennie. They have been performed internationally.

Karpman's theater catalog includes three musicals for Los Angeless "A Noise Within" theater company, as well as
underscores for dozens of classic plays. Among her media music credits are Steven Spielberg's Emmy-winning,
20-hour TV miniseries, Taken; and PBS's series The Living Edens (for which she received nine Emmy
nominations). She has scored numerous films, television programs and video games (including music for Halo 3
and her award-winning score for Everquest II). Karpman received an Annie Award nomination for A Monkey's
Tale, a short film commissioned by the Chinese government, which later premiered in the US and was performed
by the Detroit Symphony.

Karpmans Grammy-winning Ask Your Mama[2] premiered at Carnegie Hall on March 16, 2009, with
performances by Jessye Norman, Cassandra Wilson, The Roots, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by
George Manahan. With Langston Hughes's epic poem for a libretto, Karpman's work exhibited an eclectic musical
mix. Using Hughes' own voice at the core of the work, this musical includes passages from Louis Armstrong, Big
Maybelle, Pigmeat Markham and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, integrated with projected images by Rico Gatson and
additional archival video, as well as Hughes's own poetry. Annie Dorsen directed it. ASK YOUR MAMA was
released by Avie Records in July of 2016.
Later, Karpman created "The 110 Project", a work commissioned by the L.A. Opera as a paean to the city's first
freeway, I-110, which turned 70 in 2009.

In 2016, Karpman became the first woman elected to the music branch of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences Board of Governors.[3]

Awards and nominations

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

2015 Membership Induction

Annie Awards

2007 nomination, "Best Music in an Animated Feature Production" for A Monkey's Tale

BMI Film & TV Awards

2003 win, "BMI Cable Mini-Series Award" for Taken

The Charles Ives Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters

1984 win

Daytime Emmy Awards

2008 nomination, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound" for Craft in America
(PBS).

Emmy Awards

2008 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic
Score)" for Masters of Science Fiction episode "Jerry Was a Man".
2003 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for Odyssey 5 pilot
episode.

G.A.N.G. Awards

2004 win, "Best Arrangement of a Non-Original Score" for Everquest II

2004 nomination, "Best Music of the Year" for Everquest II

News & Documentary Emmy Awards

2008 nomination, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound" for Craft in America
2003 nomination, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft: Music and Sound" for The Living Edens
for "Big Sur: California's Wild Coast". Nomination shared with Nancy Severinsen, Clifford Hoelscher, Mark
Linden, and Tara Paul.
2001 nomination, "Outstanding Individual Achievement in a Craft - Music" for The Living Edens episode
"Kamchatka: Siberia's Forbidden Wilderness".
2000 nominations, "Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Music"
for The Living Edens episode "Costa Rica: Land of Pure Life"
for The Living Edens episode "Palau: Paradise of the Pacific"
1999 win, "Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Music" for The
Living Edens episode "Madagascar: A World Apart".
 1998 win "Outstanding Achievement in a Craft in News and Documentary Programming - Music" for The
Living Edens episodes "Denali: Alaska's Great Wilderness", "Manu: Peru's Hidden Rain Forest", "Patagonia:
Life at the End of the Earth".

References
1. "Premieres Pacific Serenades" (http://pacser.org/v2/premieres/).
2. "MAMA" (http://www.AskYourMama.com).
3. "Academy Elects Steven Spielberg, Laura Dern to Board of Governors" (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/motio
n-picture-academy-2016-2017-911981). The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2017-07-03.

Further reading
Vivien Lejeune, "Laura Karpman Taken by Steven Spielberg", Cinefonia, No. 2, November 2003.
Jeff Bond, Taken With Her Music, Film Score Monthly, July 2003.
Jon Burlingame, "Women in Showbiz: TV, Film Composer Not Confined to Any One Medium", Daily
Variety, November 14, 2001.
Jon Burlingame, "Women in Showbiz: Composers Curry Kudos", Daily Variety, November 8, 1999.
"Fast TrackComposers Worth Listening to: Laura Karpman", The Hollywood Reporter, January 26, 1998.
Michael Kamensky, "Spotlight: Laura Karpman", The Hollywood Reporter, January 26, 1995.
Fred Karlin, On The Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, 2nd edn, Routledge, 2004.
"Composer Laura Karpman Receives 4 Emmy Nominations", Pro Sound News, 1998.
Rudy Kopl, Taken With Her Music, Film Score Monthly, June 1997.
Jennifer Seidel, "Keeping Score", Electronic Musician, November 1995.
Curt Schleier, "Composer Cant Help but Make Her Music Sound Jewish", The Jewish Transcript, June 25,
1999.
Curt Schleier, "East of Eden", The Jewish Week, April 23, 1999.
"Laura Karpman", The Advocate, May 2, 1995.
K. Robert Schwartz, "A Woman of Independent Themes", Out Magazine, November 1995.
David G. Taylor, "Duet for the Emmys", The Advocate, September 30, 2003.

By Laura Karpman:

"An Interview with Milton Babbitt", Perspectives of New Music, v. 24 n. 213, Spring-Summer 1986.

External links
Laura Karpman Official Website (http://www.laurakarpman.com)
Ask Your Mama (http://www.askyourmama.com)
UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television: Laura Karpman (http://www.tft.ucla.edu/faculty/laura-karpm
an/)
Laura Karpman (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0440017/) on Internet Movie Database

Articles and interviews

"Settling the Score" (http://www.allbusiness.com/services/motion-pictures/4939622-1.html)

"Ode to Joystick" (http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/search/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=100238
5097)
"Viewpoint" (http://www.newmusicbox.org/page.nmbx?id=46hf03)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Laura_Karpman&oldid=788701709"

Categories: American female classical composers American classical composers
American film score composers Female film score composers Juilliard School alumni Living people
Video game composers 1959 births American Jews University of Michigan alumni Charles Ives Prize
Women in electronic music

This page was last edited on 3 July 2017, at 00:15.

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