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Classical Californians: Laura Karpman
Amanda Witt
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 We Hate, as well as founding the Alliance for Women Film Composers. Since this feature originally aired, she was nominated for an Oscar for her score to the film American Fiction. For her Classical Californian playlist, she returns to some of the music she listened to obsessively as a student – from the orchestration of light and dark heard in music of Stravinsky, to Benjamin Britten’s slippery strings, to a jazzy reinterpretation of Ravel. And we’ll hear one of her favorite works by Samuel Barber that she had a chance to re-examine in one of her own pieces.
Igor Stravinsky: Symphony of Psalms, "Alleluia, Laudate Dominum" (excerpt) - London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Michael Tilson Thomas
Samuel Barber: Knoxville: Summer of 1915 - New Philharmonia Orchestra, Thomas Schippers; Leontyne Price, soprano
Laura Karpman: Tulsa, 1921: Catch the Fire from HBO's Lovecraft Country Soundtrack - Janai Brugger, soprano
Benjamin Britten: A Midsummer Night's Dream (opening) - City of London Sinfonia, Richard Hickox
Leonard Bernstein: The Age of Anxiety, "The Masque" - Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, Marin Alsop; Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
Maurice Ravel - Herbie Hancock: Piano Concerto No. 2, mvt. 2 - Herbie Hancock, piano
Louise Talma: "Prestissimo" from Six Etudes - Theresa Bogard, piano
