Laura Karpman

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 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 Halo 3 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.

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.

She has a self-described lifelong obsession for drama, including soap opera, classical operas, and plays.

Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
 * 2024 nomination, "Academy Award for 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"

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
 * 2023 nomination, "Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie or a 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

Satellite Awards
 * 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

Articles and interviews

 * "Settling the Score"
 * "Ode to Joystick"
 * "Viewpoint"