Laura Karpman


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 four 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. She has scored numerous films, television programs and video games. 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.

Personal Life

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

Awards and nominations

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Annie Awards
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