Ep 159-Laura Karpman on Being an Artist First

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Four-time Emmy winning composer and composer of the Grammy-winning album Ask Your Mama, Laura Karpman maintains a vibrant career in film, television, video-game and concert music. Her most recent credits include the series Underground, in collaboration with Raphael Saadiq and John Legend, Step, a Sundance 2017 favorite, Eleanor Coppola’s Paris Can Wait starring Diane Lane and Alec Baldwin.

Laura has received two GANG awards and an additional nomination for her videogame music which has been performed by orchestras internationally, as well as an Annie Feature nomination. She serves as an advisor for the Sundance Film Scoring Labs and is on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program. Laura is the founding President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers and is proud to serve as a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.

She has graduate degrees from Juilliard where she studied with Milton Babbitt, where she spent her time in NYC composing and studying the complexities of concert music by day, while playing jazz and scat singing in Manhattan clubs by night.

Laura loves to teach and does so whenever she can. She currently serves on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program & the New Media and Music Technology Program at San Francisco Conservatory.

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Composer and founder of The Alliance for Women Film Composers Laura Karpman discusses making artist the first priority and why you need to get your name on all the lists.

Topics discussed in this episode:

New music vs jazz
Milton Babbitt’s “Who Cares If You Listen”
Caring about every note you write
Sundance Labs
Moving from NYC to LA
Learning to be super simple
Learning by failure
No wasted cues—everything finds its home
Alliance for Women Film Composers
Be an artist first
Get on the lists

Website:

laurakarpman.com

Recommended Listening:

The Podcast Mission

To help composers with the business end of writing music through mindset, marketing, and business skills.

The Philosophy

I believe that composers are self-employed small business owners. In order to succeed in getting our music in front of people who are interested in hearing it we need to know essential business skills such as marketing and networking. Building a successful career as a freelance composer is possible and thinking like an entrepreneur will help composers make a living writing music.

The Promise

I promise to deliver high-quality free content through the podcast and newsletter that will help you build your career as a composer. I want my free content to be better than other people's paid-for content. I also have online courses and am available for speaking and coaching.

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Kurt Knecht

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Timothy Tharaldson

What a wonderful way to use composers as resources for others!

Tina Davidson

This podcast is an excellent resource for composers at all stages of their careers. It is composers talking shop to other composers, addressing the issues that matter to our careers. It is so well thought out and executed—a total class act. Bravo to Garrett Hope for creating this much needed and well curated hub of knowledge for our community.

reeesm

Hey Garrett, again, this is so generous—to offer contemporary composers, conductors, and innovative thinkers in the new music field, the opportunities to talk about music. Really enjoyed doing a segment with you and the exchange of thoughts in talking with you about my reflections about being a composer and the paths taken toward releasing this orchestral CD, Dream Vapors. Thanks!

Rain17

By taking the time from his own life as a composer to offer the rest of us a window on how our peers work, Garrett is a truly wonderful musical citizen! Through the preparation he does for each interview, and the intelligence of the resulting conversations, Garrett has created a tremendous archive that will encourage and inspire countless music-makers. Thank you for this series, Garrett!

Alex Shapiro

Garrett Hope's series gives a wonderfully colorful and dynamic insight into the world of new music, featuring many important and diverse voices in the community today. A must-listen for anyone working within the field.

Maetstra | Maestro

A wonderful podcast and a great resource!

mgnumes

I don't even know where to start describing how incredible and important this podcast is. As a podcast aficionado who already has a long playlist of my tried and true favorites, I didn't anticipate this one completely knowing the others out of the water. In terms of helpfulness, this podcast is a must for composers today. Here are a few reasons I love the show: *The consistent format serves to highlight the content, trends, and differences between each guest. *The host, Garrett Hope, has ample experience as both a working composer and as someone who has spoken with hundreds of composers about their own career experiences, so he really knows what questions to ask and which subjects to delve into. *Practical, specific recommendations. I leave almost every episode with at least one concrete thing I can tweak or try in my own practice, promotion, business, or approach otherwise. It's not just BS, generic, arrogant sound bites from people not wanting to discuss the nitty gritty; the guests are great about giving valuable, honest perspectives. *The guests span a pretty diverse range, and it's great to see how different kinds of people of different ages and experience levels, with different interests, abilities, and dictates carve out their own careers. It's not just a monolithic image of what a composer needs to be. There are also non-composer guests as well, which is helpful, because we composers obviously need to be aware of other colleagues (like performers)! *Each episode really flies by. The episodes range from 30–60 minutes, but it's always the most riveting, inspiring, thought-provoking hour of my day/drive. Thanks for this wonderful gift you're giving to the new music world!

Chrysanthe Tan

A must-listen podcast for composers, performers, or any independent artist.

Anthony Lanman