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Laura Karpman

American Fiction (OMPS)

Sony Masterworks
Release Date: December 22, 2023

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Trailer
Laura Karpman talks about her Oscar nomination
Laura Karpman wants to 'dance the night away' to celebrate 'American Fiction' success | Etalk
Composer Laura Karpman talks 'American Fiction'
Laura Karpman MASTER CLASS
BALLS by Laura Karpman and Gail Collins: First Take 2017
Laura Karpman ('Ms. Marvel' composer) on infusing 'a superhero theme' with 'significant heritage'
1 Family Is, Monk Is  
2 Boston, MA  
3 Bookstore  
4 Beautiful Family  
5 Humans Remain  
6 My Pafology  
7 Hi Lorraine  
8 Drips  
9 Goodnight Monk  
10 Mother Is (Missing)  
11 Brothers  
12 Splash  
13 Love All Of You  
14 Lunch Break  
15 Sorry  
16 Winner  
17 Romantic Ending  
18 (Elena’s) Monk Is  
19 (Patrice’s) Monk Is  
20 (Patrice’s) Family Is  
21 (Laura’s) Stagg R. Leigh  
22 (Laura’s) Fever Dream  
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Sony Music Masterworks today releases AMERICAN FICTION (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by award-winning composer LAURA KARPMAN. Available everywhere now, the album features original score music written by Karpman for Cord Jefferson’s boldly hilarious film, which follows a novelist named Monk as he confronts issues of race, identity and his own artistic commodification. A longtime jazz aficionado who spent her Julliard days playing piano in neighborhood clubs, Karpman was initially inspired by the protagonists’ namesake, American jazz pioneer Thelonious Monk, crafting a piano-heavy soundscape with slightly off-kilter flourishes to match the film’s darkly humorous tone. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award, American Fiction debuts in select theaters today, wide in January.  

Of the project, composer LAURA KARPMAN says, “When the brilliant Cord Jefferson asked me to write a jazz score for American Fiction, it was a dream come true. This thinking-person’s film so profoundly resonated with me because of its great humor and infinite heart. The score for American Fiction centers around two main themes: Monk’s theme, which plays with the craggy edges of both the protagonist and his musician namesake, and the family theme, which cradles the beautiful contours of love, harmonically in sync, but not always played perfectly together.”

  • Laura Karpman on scoring Rock Hudson's gentle humanity for' All That Heaven Allowed' / AwardsDaily
    Posted At: August 19, 2024 12:00 AM
    Awards Daily's Joey Moser  writes…..I will always consider the end of Rock Hudson’s life to be an American tragedy. Next October will be the fortieth anniversary of Hudson’s death from AIDS, and HBO’s Rock Hudson: All That Heaven Allowed condemns a time when such an amiable, fun-loving, and talented young man was not able to live the life he was able to. Stephen Kijak’s film showcases how queer individ...
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  • How Billie Jean King and the 'Battle of the Sexes' inspired an Opera / SFCV
    Posted At: February 25, 2024 12:00 AM
    SFCV's Emily Wilson writes…..Laura Karpman was in her teens and already composing when Billie Jean King beat Bobby Riggs in the 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match. King was carried onto the court on a litter and gave Riggs a baby pig as a nod to his self-proclaimed male chauvinism.An Emmy and Grammy winner and a 2024 Academy Award nominee for the American Fiction soundtrack (you might have seen her at ...
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  • How Laura Karpman crafted a score that mirrored 'American Fiction's' tonal shifts / AWARDSDAILY Q&A
    Posted At: January 13, 2024 12:00 AM
    Sony Music Masterworks release of AMERICAN FICTION (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK) with music by award-winning composer LAURA KARPMAN features original score music written by Karpman for Cord Jefferson’s boldly hilarious film, which follows a novelist named Monk as he confronts issues of race, identity and his own artistic commodification. A longtime jazz aficionado who spent her Julliard days playing ...
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  • Laura Karpman discusses 'American Fiction' with DEADLINE's 'Breaking Baz'
    Posted At: December 18, 2023 12:00 AM
    DEADLINE's Baz Bamigboye writes….. Laura Karpman was drip-fed jazz notes when she was a baby. Her mother’s turn-table featured a playlist that included Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Wes Montgomery and Thelonious Monk, the virtuoso pianist, whose music informs and underpins her own jazz-infused score for Cord Jefferson’s scorching American Fiction.“So I remember in her painting studio, my mother had a record...
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  • Laura Karpman is the KDFC-KUSC: Classical Californian
    Posted At: October 9, 2023 12:00 AM
    KUSC Staff writes…Laura Karpman didn’t start out wanting to be a film composer – her plans involved going to New York from her native Los Angeles to become a “serious” composer. And she did – studying with people like Milton Babbitt and Nadia Boulanger. But she proudly returned to LA, and has provided scores for HBO’s series Lovecraft Country, won an Emmy for the Discovery Channel’s documentary series Why W...
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  • 'Ms. Marvel' composer: Laura Karpman chats with GOLDDERBY
    Posted At: May 17, 2023 12:00 AM
    A bold, incandescent talent, composer Laura Karpman creates powerful, imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling. Her award-winning music, spanning film, television, theater, interactive media and live performance, reflects an audaciously creative, prodigious, fresh spirit. Karpman collaborates with the most creative filmmakers of our time, including Misha Green, Steven Spielberg, Nia DaCos...
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  • 101.5 UMFM's 'Mondo Hollywood' celebrates female composers & and an interview with Laura Karpman
    Posted At: February 27, 2022 12:00 AM
    A bold, incandescent talent, composer Laura Karpman creates powerful, imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling. Her award-winning music, spanning film, television, theater, interactive media and live performance, reflects an audaciously creative, prodigious, fresh spirit. Karpman collaborates with the most creative filmmakers of our time, including Misha Green, Steven Spielberg, Alex Gibn...
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  • Laura Karpman wins 'Best Original Dramatic Score for a Documentary Series or Special' for 'Why We Hate' / Premium Times
    Posted At: September 25, 2020 12:00 AM

    Laura Karpman (Underground, Paris Can Wait, Step, Black Nativity) won Original Dramatic Score for a Documentary Series or Special for Why We Hate, a six-part Discovery series that sets out to answer the question, "Where does hate come from?" Executive produced by Oscar winners Steven Spielberg (Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan) and Alex Gibney (Taxi To The Dark Side, The Inventor: Out for Blood In S...
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  • Laura Karpman - 'Why We Hate' nominated for 2 Emmy's / Variety
    Posted At: August 27, 2020 12:00 AM

    As Emmy voting draws to a close, the 2020 music nominations span rookies to regulars. Martin Phipps landed his sixth nomination overall for the dramatic score to Netflix's "The Crown." Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor and his scoring partner Atticus Ross nabbed a nomination for their first series, HBO's "Watchmen." Emmy fave "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" grabbed another music supervision nom, while composers ...
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  • Mentor in the USC film-scoring program, Laura Karpman starts virtual orchestra to meet production delivery dates / Variety
    Posted At: April 2, 2020 12:00 AM

    The shutdown of production was devastating to Los Angeles' music community, just as it has been for every aspect of TV- and movie-making. But creative thinking is putting some studio musicians back to work. John Acosta, president of Local 47 of the American Federation of Musicians, projects that lost wages due to the cancellation of live performances (notably by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, L.A. Ope...
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  • 'Why We Hate' podcast with Laura Karpman
    Posted At: January 21, 2020 12:00 AM

    Laura Karpman (Underground, Paris Can Wait, Step, Black Nativity) has scored the Discovery docu-series Why We Hate. The show is directed by Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard and investigates the human capacity for hatred and how we can overcome it. The 6-parter traces the evolutionary basis of hate and uses stories from past and present to reveal the nature of the primal and universal emotion. Steven...
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  • Why it took two women to write 'Balls,' the opera about Billie Jean King's battle of the sexes / SPRING HILL INSIDER
    Posted At: December 10, 2019 12:00 AM

    Composer Laura Karpman was walking on the beach in front of her house when the idea hit her: She would write an opera about tennis great Billie Jean King, and it had to be called "Balls." Karpman had been in her early teens when she first watched King dismantle Bobby Riggs' made-for-TV chauvinism one volley at a time, live on ABC in their "Battle of the Sexes" match. "Everybody was watching," she remembe...
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  • Laura Karpman's 'Why We Hate' docuseries soundtrack is the KDFC 'Download Of the Week'
    Posted At: November 6, 2019 12:00 AM

    Laura Karpman (Underground, Paris Can Wait, Step, Black Nativity) has scored the Discovery docu-series Why We Hate. The show is directed by Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard and investigates the human capacity for hatred and how we can overcome it. The 6-parter traces the evolutionary basis of hate and uses stories from past and present to reveal the nature of the primal and universal emotion. Steven Spie...
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  • Laura Karpman's 'Why We Hate' docuseries soundtrack is the KUSC 'Download Of the Week'
    Posted At: November 6, 2019 12:00 AM

    Laura Karpman (Underground, Paris Can Wait, Step, Black Nativity) has scored the Discovery docu-series Why We Hate. The show is directed by Geeta Gandbhir & Sam Pollard and investigates the human capacity for hatred and how we can overcome it. The 6-parter traces the evolutionary basis of hate and uses stories from past and present to reveal the nature of the primal and universal emotion. Steven Spie...
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  • History forgot these female composers. Laura Karpman is helping us remember / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: August 22, 2019 12:00 AM

    American composer Anita Owen wrote her biggest hit song, "Sweet Bunch of Daisies," in 1894. She was 20 at the time, a student at a convent outside Terre Haute, Ind. According to a 1910 article on female composers in the San Francisco Call, Owen self-published the song for less than $50. That investment paid off when the song became a hit, selling more than a million copies. According to the San Francisco...
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  • Laura Karpman oversees University of Michigan rehearsal of 'Ask Your Mama' / Smithsonian
    Posted At: January 13, 2019 12:00 AM

    ASK YOUR MAMA - Setting of  Langston Hughes' 1961 epic poem by Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman was a Carnegie Hall commission and Avie Records release. A plural vision of the American dream deferred, ASK YOUR MAMA bursts the boundaries of time, place and expression, tracing the currents and tributaries of cultural diasporas, from African to the Americas, the South to the North, cities ...
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  • Although the numbers are bleak, the landscape isn't' for female composers / The New York Times
    Posted At: January 12, 2019 12:00 AM

    A 2018 study by the University of Southern California revealed that for the top 100 fictional films at the box office every year from 2007 to 2017, only 16 female composers were hired, compared with more than 1,200 men. Another report, from the Center for the Study of Women in Television and Film, showed that of the top 250 films at the domestic box office in 2018, 94 percent were scored by men. "Th...
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  • John Williams, Laura Karpman - honored at BMI Film, TV and Visual Media Awards / Variety
    Posted At: May 10, 2018 12:00 AM

    Legendary composer John Williams accepted a new award, named after him, "in recognition of his incomparable status as one of the greatest film and television composers of our time," at Wednesday night's Film, TV and Visual Media Awards of Broadcast Music Inc. (BMI) in Beverly Hills. The creator of such iconic movie themes as "Jaws," "E.T." and the musical signatures of the "Star Wars," "Indiana ...
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  • Women dominate the conductor's podium and composer's desk on 'Mozart in the Jungle' / KPCC - The Frame
    Posted At: February 27, 2018 12:00 AM

    In the past year, only half of the major U.S. orchestras programmed any music written by women. One big exception in the field is the L.A. Philharmonic, whose upcoming season will feature 22 commissions by women composers. Another exception: the fictional world of "Mozart in the Jungle." In the fourth season of the Amazon Prime series, which dropped on Feb. 16, women dominate the conductor's podium and m...
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  • Academy declares 141 original scores eligible for this year's Oscars / NEWSLINE
    Posted At: December 19, 2017 12:00 AM

    Nearly 150 musical scores are in contention for this year's "original score" Oscar, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday. The 141 scores include nearly all of those considered likely candidates for the final five slots (to be announced Jan. 23).  Jonny Greenwood, who was famously disqualified 10 years ago for his "There Will Be Blood" score, qualifies this year with h...
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  • Laura Karpman talks about 'Balls' / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: February 23, 2017 12:00 AM

    Composer Laura Karpman was walking on the beach in front of her house when the idea hit her: She would write an opera about tennis great Billie Jean King, and it had to be called "Balls." Karpman had been in her early teens when she first watched King dismantle Bobby Riggs' made-for-TV chauvinism one volley at a time, live on ABC in their "Battle of the Sexes" match. "Everybody was watching," she remembe...
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  • KUSC's Gail Eichenthal kicks off 'The Women Who Score'
    Posted At: August 21, 2016 12:00 AM

    "Women composers are no longer invisible, they are no longer silent." With those words,  KUSC: Los Angeles executive producer Gail Eichenthal helped kick off "The Women Who Score: Soundtracks Live," Friday (Aug. 19) night's concert featuring the music of more than 20 female composers as part of Downtown Los Angeles' Grand Performances series. The evening highlighted music written by women from film,...
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  • Laura Karpman & Penka Kouneva join 'The Women Who Score - Soundtracks Live Concert' / billboard
    Posted At: August 4, 2016 12:00 AM

    Grand Performances, the "Best Free Outdoor Summer Concert Series" in Los Angeles and the Alliance for Women Film Composers team up celebrate the music of women composers in film, television, video games and interactive media at The Women Who Score: Soundtracks Live, a free concert in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday, August 19. The concert will highlight music written by women from film, television, ...
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  • Laura Karpman applauds Academy for most diverse class ever / Los Angeles Times
    Posted At: June 30, 2016 12:00 AM

    The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science has revealed the names of the 683 filmmakers and craftspeople it is inviting to join its ranks. Forty-one percent of the enormous new class is comprised of people of color, bumping the overall academy from 8% to 11% people of color. After the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said she was committed to doubling the number of wo...
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  • Laura Karpman gives strength to WGN - Underground / examiner.com
    Posted At: March 26, 2016 12:00 AM

    Los Angeles-based composer Laura Karpman is no stranger to writing music for television. Through 109 IMDB credits, more than half are devoted to work within the television medium. She was awarded four Emmys for her music contributions to the PBS documentary series "The Living Edens," and was also nominated for seven additional Emmy awards throughout her career. Karpman's current project sees her reun...
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  • Laura Karpman's quest to get more women into film and TV scoring / KPCC Radio
    Posted At: March 17, 2016 12:00 AM

    We all know about the lack of women directors in Hollywood, but there are jobs in the film biz where the lack of gender diversity is even worse. Take the composer category, for instance. According to a Los Angeles Times study of voters in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the academy's music branch is 92-percent male. What's worse is women comprised just 1 percent of all composers ...
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  • WGN's Underground - Paste Q&A with Laura Karpman
    Posted At: March 10, 2016 12:00 AM

    At Paste we've always been concerned with-and excited by-the relationship between music and television. We've celebrated the use of soundtrack and score in shows like Mad Men, The Sopranos and many others. But I can safely say that nothing has quite prepared us for the musical trip that WGN's Underground will be taking us on, as it premieres tonight. To say that Gra...
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  • Laura Karpman talks about scoring upcoming WGN America series - Underground / The Urban Twist
    Posted At: March 7, 2016 12:00 AM

    Laura Anne Karpman is an American composer, whose work includes scoring for films, television, video games, theater, and concert. Her 2016 Grammy-winning release is extraordinary, partly because Ask Your Mama is generically unlike any other work ever composed. It is based on a cycle of poems titled by Langston Hughes, written in 1960, subtitled 12 Moods for Jazz and available for purchase on Itunes. So w...
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  • Laura Karpman - Ask Your Mama. Setting the poetry of Langston Hughes. 3 GRAMMY Noms / WFMT
    Posted At: February 15, 2016 12:00 AM

    In 2009, composer Laura Karpman unveiled a new work, Ask Your Mama, during Carnegie Hall's HONOR! Festival that celebrated African American music and culture. Inspired by Langston Hughes's poem of the same name, Ask Your Mama is a multimedia exploration of the black experience. But Karpman herself is not black. "I'm a white composer, living in white privilege, setting the poetry of Langston Hughes," ...
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  • Laura Karpman - ASK YOUR MAMA / KDFC: Download Of the Week
    Posted At: February 2, 2016 12:00 AM

    Each week KDFC: San Francisco members can download a free mp3 from some of the biggest releases in the world of Classical music. It's fitting that four-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman's ASK YOUR MAMA was released by Avie Records within days of Independence Day: as icon of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, says in his poem of the same name, "your country is your mam...
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  • Laura Karpman - Ask Your Mama / Opera News review
    Posted At: December 21, 2015 12:00 AM

    As with much poetry of that era, Hughes intended that "Ask Your Mama" be read out loud, and in this case, to the accompaniment of jazz. In his words, "[W]hen I gave the first reading of some segments of this poem, they were read to jazz. However, the poem may be read with or without music, of course. But for the benefit of those who might like to hear the music that I heard in my mind as I wrote 'Ask...
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  • GRAMMY's diverse classical-music CAT noms Laura Karpman | Langston Hughes - Ask Your Mama
    Posted At: December 8, 2015 12:00 AM

    The development in the classical-music GRAMMY's during the last several years has been the inclusion of more diverse corners of this vast field. For many, that is a good thing - better than having Georg Solti (still the all-time Grammys champ), Vladimir Horowitz or the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra dominate year after year, as in the past. For 'classical compendium,' whose winners of th...
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  • Laura Karpman - ASK YOUR MAMA gets 3 GRAMMY Nominations
    Posted At: December 7, 2015 12:00 AM

    It's fitting that four-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman's ASK YOUR MAMA was released by Avie Records within days of Independence Day: as icon of the Harlem Renaissance, Langston Hughes, says in his poem of the same name, "your country is your mama."  With her original musical setting of Hughes's epic work, Karpman gives us a true 21st century marriage between her own bold, ...
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  • Laura Karpman - Ask Your Mama featured on 91.9 Atlanta
    Posted At: November 29, 2015 12:00 AM

    Emmy Award-Winning Composer Laura Karpman uses Langston Hughes' epic 1961 poem Ask Your Mama as the theme on Ask Your Mama: 12 Moods For Jazz. She uses a contemporary who's who of vocalists and instrumentalists to weave different genres together in a tour de force dedicated to this protean poet, social activist, novelist and playwright. You can hear cuts from Ask Your Mama on WCLK, particular...
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