Laura Karpman
Encyclopedia
Laura Karpman is an American
composer
, whose work has included scoring for film
, television
, video games, theater, and concert
. 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.
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 from the University of Michigan
, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, studying with William Bolcom
and Leslie Bassett
. She received both her Doctor and Masters in Music Composition at The Juilliard School, where her principal teacher was Milton Babbitt
.
, Los Angeles Opera
, American Composers Orchestra
, Czech Philharmonic, The Juilliard Choral Union, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie
. They have been performed internationally.
Karpman's theater catalog includes three musicals for Los Angeles’s "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.
Karpman’s score for "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz" 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.
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.
BMI Film & TV Awards
The Charles Ives Award, American Academy of Arts and Letters
Daytime Emmy Awards
Emmy Awards
G.A.N.G. Awards
News & Documentary Emmy Awards
By Laura Karpman:
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
, whose work has included scoring for film
Film
A film, also called a movie or motion picture, is a series of still or moving images. It is produced by recording photographic images with cameras, or by creating images using animation techniques or visual effects...
, television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
, video games, theater, and concert
Concert
A concert is a live performance before an audience. The performance may be by a single musician, sometimes then called a recital, or by a musical ensemble, such as an orchestra, a choir, or a musical band...
. 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
Scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. Scat singing gives singers the ability to sing improvised melodies and rhythms, to create the equivalent of an instrumental solo using their voice.- Structure and syllable choice...
in bars.
Education
Karpman worked with John HarbisonJohn Harbison
John Harris Harbison is an American composer, best known for his operas and large choral works.-Life:...
at the Tanglewood Music Center
Tanglewood Music Center
The Tanglewood Music Center is an annual summer music academy in Lenox, Massachusetts, United States, in which emerging professional musicians participate in performances, master classes and workshops designed to provide an intense training and networking experience...
, and attended Aspen Music School and the Ecole des Arts Americaines, where she worked with Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger
Nadia Boulanger was a French composer, conductor and teacher who taught many composers and performers of the 20th century.From a musical family, she achieved early honours as a student at the Paris Conservatoire, but believing that her talent as a composer was inferior to that of her younger...
. She received her Bachelor of Music from the University of Michigan
University of Michigan
The University of Michigan is a public research university located in Ann Arbor, Michigan in the United States. It is the state's oldest university and the flagship campus of the University of Michigan...
, where she graduated Magna Cum Laude, studying with William Bolcom
William Bolcom
William Elden Bolcom is an American composer and pianist. He has received the Pulitzer Prize, the National Medal of Arts, two Grammy Awards, the Detroit Music Award and was named 2007 Composer of the Year by Musical America. Bolcom taught composition at the University of Michigan from 1973–2008...
and Leslie Bassett
Leslie Bassett
Leslie Bassett is an American composer of classical music, and the University of Michigan’s Albert A. Stanley Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Composition...
. She received both her Doctor and Masters in Music Composition at The Juilliard School, where her principal teacher was Milton Babbitt
Milton Babbitt
Milton Byron Babbitt was an American composer, music theorist, and teacher. He is particularly noted for his serial and electronic music.-Biography:...
.
Career
Compositions by Kapman have been commissioned by Tonya PinkinsTonya Pinkins
Tonya Pinkins is an American actress and author known for her portrayal of Livia Frye on the soap opera All My Children and for her roles on Broadway, for which she won a Tony Award.-Biography:...
, Los Angeles Opera
Los Angeles Opera
The Los Angeles Opera is an opera company in Los Angeles, California. It is the fourth largest opera company in the United States. The company's home base is the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, part of the Los Angeles Music Center.-Current leadership:...
, American Composers Orchestra
American Composers Orchestra
The American Composers Orchestra is an American orchestra based in New York City. It is the only orchestra in the world dedicated solely to the creation, performance, preservation, and promulgation of music by American composers...
, Czech Philharmonic, The Juilliard Choral Union, and percussionist Evelyn Glennie
Evelyn Glennie
Dame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, DBE is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society.-Early life:Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire...
. They have been performed internationally.
Karpman's theater catalog includes three musicals for Los Angeles’s "A Noise Within" theater company, as well as underscores for dozens of classic plays. Among her media music credits are Steven Spielberg
Steven Spielberg
Steven Allan Spielberg KBE is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, video game designer, and studio entrepreneur. In a career of more than four decades, Spielberg's films have covered many themes and genres. Spielberg's early science-fiction and adventure films were seen as an...
's Emmy-winning, 20-hour TV miniseries, "Taken"; and PBS's series "The Living Edens
The Living Edens
The Living Edens was a Public Broadcasting Service series that began in 1997. Narrators included Peter Coyote and Linda Hunt. Its most recent episode was broadcast in 2001. It was partially funded by Reader's Digest in exchange for various marketing rights....
" (for which she received nine Emmy nominations). She has scored numerous films, television programs and video games (including music for "Halo 3
Halo 3
Halo 3 is a first-person shooter video game developed by Bungie for the Xbox 360 console. The third installment in the Halo franchise, the game concludes the story arc begun in Halo: Combat Evolved and continued in Halo 2...
" and her award-winning score for "Everquest II
EverQuest II
EverQuest II is a 3D fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Sony Online Entertainment , based on EverQuest, and shipped on 8 November 2004...
"). Karpman received an Annie Award
Annie Award
The Annie Awards have been presented by the Los Angeles, California branch of the International Animated Film Association, ASIFA-Hollywood since 1972...
nomination for "A Monkey's Tale
A Monkey's Tale
A Monkey's Tale is a feature-length French animated film by Jean-François Laguionie. It was released in 1999. For unknown reasons, it has never been released on American video or DVD, although it has been available in the UK.-Synopsis:...
", a short film commissioned by the Chinese Government, which later premiered in the US and was performed by the Detroit Symphony.
Karpman’s score for "Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods for Jazz" premiered at Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
on March 16, 2009 with performances by Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman
Jessye Norman is an American opera singer. Norman is a well-known contemporary opera singer and recitalist, and is one of the highest paid performers in classical music...
, Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson
Cassandra Wilson is an American jazz musician, vocalist, songwriter, and producer from Jackson, Mississippi. Described by critic Gary Giddins as "a singer blessed with an unmistakable timbre and attack [who has] expanded the playing field" by incorporating country, blues and folk music into her...
, The Roots
The Roots
The Roots is an American hip hop/neo soul band formed in 1987 by Tariq "Black Thought" Trotter and Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. They are famed for beginning with a jazzy, eclectic approach to hip hop which still includes live instrumentals...
, and the Orchestra of St. Luke's conducted by George Manahan. With Langston Hughes
Langston Hughes
James Mercer Langston Hughes was an American poet, social activist, novelist, playwright, and columnist. He was one of the earliest innovators of the then-new literary art form jazz poetry. Hughes is best known for his work during the Harlem Renaissance...
'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
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, Big Maybelle
Big Maybelle
Mabel Louise Smith , known professionally as Big Maybelle, was an American R&B singer and pianist. Her 1956 hit single "Candy" received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award in 1999.-Biography:...
, Pigmeat Markham
Pigmeat Markham
Dewey "Pigmeat" Markham was an African-American entertainer. Though best known as a comedian, Markham was also a singer, dancer, and actor...
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.
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.
Awards and nominations
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 FictionMasters of Science FictionMasters of Science Fiction is an American television anthology series by the same creators as Masters of Horror. The show debuted on ABC on August 4, 2007 at 10PM for a run of four episodes...
episode "Jerry Was a Man". - 2003 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Dramatic Underscore)" for Odyssey 5Odyssey 5Odyssey 5 is a Canadian science fiction series that first ran in 2002 on Showtime in the United States and on Space in Canada.In the United States, the initial run of the series ran for 14 of the 20 episodes, leaving the six remaining episodes unaired for a period of roughly two years...
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".
Further reading
- Vivien Lejeune, “Laura Karpman Taken by Steven Spielberg,” Cinefonia, No. 2, Nov. 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, Nov. 14, 2001.
- Jon Burlingame, “Women in Showbiz: Composers Curry Kudos,” Daily Variety, November 8, 1999.
- “Fast Track—Composers 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 Ed., 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 Can’t 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
- Ask Your Mama
- UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television: Laura Karpman