What If…?

Composer

LAURA KARPMAN

MODERATED BY BRYAN ANDREWS (Director)

Screening Link available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A 

Wednesday, June 1, 6:30PM (PT)

What If…? flips the script on the MCU, reimagining famous events from the films in unexpected ways. Marvel Studios’ first animated series focuses on different heroes from the MCU, featuring a voice cast that includes a host of stars who reprise their roles. TV-14 | 30mins

Laura Karpman is a bold, incandescent talent who creates powerful and imaginative scores that push the boundaries of storytelling. The five-time Emmy winner’s scores span the Marvel Studios’ series What If? and Ms. Marvel, the HBO hit series Lovecraft Country, 2020 Oscar-nominated Walk Run Cha-Cha, and the Discovery Channel docuseries Why We Hate, for which she recently won an Emmy Award. Others include Miss Virginia, the Netflix romantic comedy Set It Up, Sony’s Paris Can Wait, Lionsgate’s The CoCon Club Encore, Fox Searchlight’s Step and Black NatIvity, the drama series Underground, Sony’s L.A.’s Finest, Peabody award-winning series Craft in America, and Showtime’s Sid and Judy. Karpman received a Critic’s Choice award for her song, “Jump”, co-written with frequent collaborators Raphael Saadiq and Taura Stinson, and sung by Cynthia Erivo. Her animated work includes Netflix’s Sitara. Her celebrated scores for interactive media include Guardians of Middle Earth, Everquest 2, Kung Fu Panda 2, Project Spark, Kinect Disneyland Adventures, and Untold Legends Dark Kingdom. Across concert halls, Karpman is well known for her Grammy award-winning album, ASK YOUR MAMA, a multimedia opera based on the iconic cycle of poems by Langston Hughes. The album’s Grammy-winning recording would use vocalist Janai Brugger who would later perform a new original piece by Karpman called “Tulsa 1921: To Catch a Fire” from Lovecraft Country. Other notable works include All American, commissioned and performed by The Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; Brass Ceiling, commissioned and recorded by The U.S. Army Band, and And SIll We Dream, commissioned by Lyric Opera of Kansas City honoring 100 years of suffrage; Wilde Tales, commissioned by Glimmerglass Festival; Balls, an opera chronicling Billie Jean King’s 1973 “Battle of the Sexes” tennis match with words by NY Times writer Gail Collins; and a pandemic opera for Opera Theatre of St. Louis with words by Taura Stinson.

A fierce champion for inclusion in Hollywood, after founding the Alliance for Women Film Composers, Karpman became the first American woman composer inducted into the music branch of the Academy of Motion Pictures and Sciences and was subsequently elected to be the first female governor of the music branch. Karpman is an advisor for the Sundance Film Ins8tute and on the faculty of the USC Film Scoring Program and the San Francisco Conservatory. She received a doctorate from The Juilliard School where she studied with 20th-century icon Milton Babbitt.

Karpman’s upcoming projects include The Marvels, a Marvel Studios feature film directed by Nia DaCosta. 

Bryan Andrews is a multi-Emmy-winning animation artist. He has storyboarded some of the most iconic scenes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including major set pieces in all of the Avengers films, Captain Marvel, as well as the Guardians of the Galaxy and Iron Man sagas. He has provided additional materials in the concept of many of the epic fight sequences. Joe Russo consulted with Andrews extensively in designing the final fight sequence for Avengers: Endgame. 

In animation, Andrews has worked closely with Genndy Tartakovsky as a writer and artist on the Emmy-nominated Sym-Bionic Titan, the Emmy-winning Primal, and Samurai Jack. He scored two more Emmys for his work on Star Wars: Clone Wars. Currently, Andrews is directing and executive producing the highly anticipated second season of Marvel Studios’ animation series What If…? for Disney+ along with another animated series, Marvel Studios’ Zombies.

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FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Wednesday, June 1, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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