Laura Karpman facts for kids

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

Education

Born in Los Angeles, 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, 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 Grammy-winning Ask Your Mama 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 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 2014, Karpman co-founded the Alliance for Women Film Composers with Lolita Ritmanis and Miriam Cutler. The organization provides visibility and advocacy for women composers.

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

In 2020, Karpman was hired to compose the score for the Marvel Studios animated anthology series What If...?.

In January 2022, Karpman was hired to compose the score for the upcoming superhero film The Marvels.

Karpman composed the score for the streaming series Ms. Marvel, premiering in 2022; it was her third Marvel Studios outing.

She composed the score for American Fiction, which premiered in 2023.

Personal life

Karpman is married to fellow composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum. They live in Playa del Rey, California, with their son.

Filmography

Films

Television

Video games

Awards and nominations

Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

• 2015 Membership Induction

American Academy of Arts and Letters

• 1984 win, "Charles Ives Award"

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

Game Audio Network Guild Awards

• 2004 win, "Best Arrangement of a Non-Original Score" for Everquest II
• 2004 nomination, "Best Music of the Year" for Everquest II

Hollywood Music in Media Awards

• 2023 nomination, "Best Original Score in a Feature Film" for American Fiction
• 2023 win, "Best Original Score in a Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film" for The Marvels

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"

Primetime Emmy Awards

• 2021 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)" for Lovecraft Country: Rewind 1921
• 2020 win, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score)" for Why We Hate: Tools & Tactics
• 2020 nomination, "Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music" for Why We Hate
• 2008 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a Special (Original Dramatic Score)" for Masters of Science Fiction: Jerry Was a Man
• 2003 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)" for Odyssey 5: Pilot