Emmy-Winning Composer Laura Karpman Teaches at Valencia Campus

Four-time Emmy Award-winning composer Laura Karpman was raised on bebop and Beethoven. She trained at the Juilliard School, where she played jazz, scatted in bars, and studied with Milton Babbitt. While life has always been an exciting ride for Karpman, since September, the multifaceted composer’s travels have taken her to Spain to teach at Berklee College of Music, Valencia Campus, which she calls “one of the most profound experiences of my life.” She goes on to say that, “Spain is full of constant surprises. Around every corner is a more beautiful building, a kinder, warmer person, a brass band playing, a strumming flamenco guitarist accompanying skate boarders, and constant fireworks, both literal and metaphoric. Inside the school, every kind of music flourishes. An Indian singer wailing on jazz; oud, recorder, and mandolin form a band; and composers work intently, creating stylistically diverse music reflecting their truly international roots.”

Karpman is one of the most versatile composers working today, having collaborated with artists from filmmakers Steven Spielberg and Kathy Bates to world-renowned soprano Jessye Norman and hip-hop masters the Roots. She's worked with institutions like the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Prague Symphony, and Sony Entertainment. Her acclaimed "Ask Your Mama," which premiered to a sold-out audience at Carnegie Hall in March 2009, and received its West Coast premiere at the Hollywood Bowl, returns to New York in March at the Apollo Theater in collaboration with the Manhattan School of Music.