New Music USA Online Library

Commissioned by Carnegie Hall, Karpman collaborated with soprano Jessye Norman on ASK YOUR MAMA, a multimedia hybrid opera on a text by Langston Hughes, which received its sold out premiere at Carnegie Hall in March 2009, and its West Coast premiere at The Hollywood Bowl in August 2009, both critically acclaimed. In November 2009, THE ONE-TEN PROJECT, commissioned by the Los Angeles Opera on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the 110 Freeway, with a libretto by M.G. Lord and Shannon Halwes, received its first workshop. Karpman conducted the premiere of her bassoon concerto SCAT with the Czech Philharmonic at the Prague Proms in July 2007. Karpman’s concert music has been performed at such venues as Carnegie Hall, Hollywood Bowl, Lincoln Center, and The Tanglewood Music Festival, by ensembles including The Los Angeles Philharmonic, Detroit Symphony, Concordia, The American Composers’ Orchestra, The New York Youth Symphony, Red Bull Artsehcro, Richmond Symphony, Prague Symphony, the Young Musician’s Foundation Orchestra, and the Hollywood Studio Orchestra, among others. Recently, THE TRANSITIVE PROPERTY OF EQUALITY, conducted by Marin Alsop was performed at the 2006 Cabrillo Festival, HEEBIE JEEBIES, a choral work for The Juilliard Choral Union conducted by Judith Clurman, premiered on the occasion of the centennial of The Juilliard School, Lincoln Center; Music from EVERQUEST II, had multiple performances by El Paso Symphony, Video Games Live Orchestra, The Houston Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic; ROUNDS premiered by The Society for New Music, Syracuse, ABOUT JOSHUA, premiered for the acclaimed Debussy Trio, COMMON TONE, for electric violist Martha Mooke, and NICK NAMES, a song cycle for Boulder’s Sound Circle. Recent commissions & performances include TAKE 4, a concerto for The Premiere Saxophone Quartet & The San Jose Chamber Symphony; STICK TRICK, a percussion concerto for Evelyn Glennie; AN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE for Tonya Pinkins; and MELTING POT, a series of multimedia works that combine spoken word, rap, opera and jazz out of Harlem Renaissance poetry. Karpman’s concert music awards include the Ives Fellowship from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, ASCAP Foundation grants, Meet the Composer grants, residencies at Tanglewood, McDowell Colony, and The Sundance Institute. Karpman received her doctorate from Juilliard where she studied with Milton Babbitt. A frequent composer for the theater, Karpman recently completed her third musical for Los Angeles’ classical theatre company A Noise Within (ANW), CARROLLING, based on the works of Lewis Carroll, after the three-season run of her setting of Oscar Wilde’s FAIRY TALES. Additional works include ANW’s production of Shakespeare’s OTHELLO, PHAEDRA, THE TEMPEST, Moliere’s SCHOOL FOR WIVES, AS YOU LIKE IT and HOMECOMING. Her music for THE CHERRY ORCHARD recently premiered to rave reviews at The Georgia Shakespeare Festival. Karpman’s collaborations with singer/actor Tonya Pinkins have included adaptations of music for THAT OLD BLACK MAGIC and PUSH DE BUTTON for an evening of Harold Arlen songs at Jazz at Lincoln Center, and ANOTHER HUNDRED PEOPLE and I REMEMBER for Stephen Sondheim’s 75th Birthday performance at The New Amsterdam Theater. Currently, Karpman & Pinkins are collaborating on AN AMERICAN LANDSCAPE, a performance profiling strong American women. In addition to writing music for film, videogames, concert and theater venues, Karpman is an active member of the faculty of the UCLA School of Theater, Film and Television and was recently a guest composer of The Juilliard School Composition Forum. She is also a member of the Los Angeles Institute for the Humanities.