Laura Karpman
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Laura Anne Karpman 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, as well as an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. Karpman was trained at the Juilliard School, where she played jazz by day and honed her skills scatting in bars at night.
Early life and education
Karpman was born in Los Angeles and grew up singing opera and jazz. Her mother, a painter and sculptor, wanted her to grow up to be a composer and surrounded Karpman with music even before she was born. Karpman began her first compositions at the age of 7.
She worked with John Harbison at the Tanglewood Music Center, and attended Aspen Music School and the Ecole des Arts Americaines. At the University of Michigan, she graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Music degree 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. At Juilliard, Karpman also received mentorship from Nadia Boulanger.
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 supplemental Halo 3 materials and her award-winning score for EverQuest II).
She has held a residency at Sony Online Entertainment. 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 also took 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. Ask Your Mama was released by Avie Records in July 2016. Later, Karpman created "The 110 Project", an opera work commissioned by the L.A. Opera as a homage to the city's first freeway, I-110, as seen through four characters from 1940-2010, the lifespan of the freeway.
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.
Karpman composed the score for the Marvel Studios animated anthology series What If...? in 2021, the streaming series Ms. Marvel in 2022 and the score for the superhero film The Marvels in 2023. She composed the score for the 2023 film American Fiction, for which she received her first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score.
In 2026, Karpman composed the score for Give Me the Ball!, a documentary about the life and legacy of Billie Jean King.
Personal life
Karpman is married to composer Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum, a fellow Milton Babbitt student. They have one son and live in Playa del Rey, California, in a duplex with an ocean view and a built-in studio.
Karpman is known for a signature look: she wears two pairs of glasses, one pair on her face, and the other on her head. She has a self-described lifelong obsession for drama, including soap opera, classical operas, and plays.
Filmography
Films
Television
| Year | Title | Studio(s) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1997–2003 | The Living Edens | CBS Productions / BBC | 24 episodes |
| 2002 | Taken | DreamWorks Television | 10 episodes |
| 2002–2003 | Odyssey 5 | Columbia TriStar Domestic Television | 19 episodes |
| 2007–2022 | Craft in America | —N/a | 18 episodes |
| 2016–2017 | Underground | Sony Pictures Television | 20 episodes |
| 2019 | L.A.'s Finest | Sony Pictures Television Jerry Bruckheimer Television | 13 episodes |
| 2019 | Why We Hate | Amblin Television | 6 episodes Won - Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special |
| 2020 | Lovecraft Country | Warner Bros. Television Studios Monkeypaw Productions Bad Robot | 10 episodes |
| 2021–2024 | What If...? | Marvel Studios Animation | 26 episodes Co-composed with Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum for seasons 2 and 3 |
| 2022 | From Scratch | Netflix | 8 episodes |
| 2022 | 61st Street | AMC BBC Studios | 16 episodes |
| 2022 | Ms. Marvel | Marvel Studios | 6 episodes |
| 2025–present | Marvel Zombies | Marvel Studios Animation | 4 episodes Co-composed with Nora Kroll-Rosenbaum |
Video games
| Year | Title |
|---|---|
| 2004 | EverQuest II |
| 2005 | EverQuest II: The Splitpaw Saga |
| 2006 | EverQuest II: Kingdom of Sky |
| Field Commander | |
| EverQuest II: The Fallen Dynasty | |
| Untold Legends: Dark Kingdom | |
| EverQuest: Prophecy of Ro | |
| 2007 | EverQuest: The Buried Sea |
| 2011 | Kung Fu Panda 2 |
| 2012 | Guardians of Middle-earth |
| 2014 | Project Spark |
Awards and nominations
- 2024 nomination, "Best Original Score" for American Fiction
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
- 2015 Membership Induction
American Academy of Arts and Letters
- 1984 win, "Charles Ives Award"
- 2007 nomination, "Best Music in an Animated Feature Production" for A Monkey's Tale
- 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"
- 2024 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special (Original Dramatic Score)" for Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed
- 2023 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited or Anthology Series, Movie or Special (Original Dramatic Score)" for Ms. Marvel: Time and Again
- 2023 nomination, "Outstanding Original Main Title Theme Music" for Ms. Marvel
- 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
- 2024 win, Best Original Score, for American Fiction
Society of Composers & Lyricists Awards
- 2023 nomination, "Outstanding Original Score for a Studio Film" for American Fiction
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 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 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 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, 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, vol. 24, no. 213, Spring–Summer 1986.
External links
- at IMDb