Kathryn Bostic | |
|---|---|
| Genres | Film score, orchestral |
| Occupation | Composer · Vocalist · Songwriter |
| Years active | 2001–present |
| Website | kathrynbostic |
Kathryn Bostic is an American composer and artist known for her work on award-winning films, TV, and theater. In 2016, she became the first female African-American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, and was the vice president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from 2016 to 2018. [1]
Bostic has written scores and songs for film, television and stage, including award-winning films Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am and Amy Tan: Unintended Memoir, for which she received an Emmy Award nomination. Bostic also wrote and performed the Toni Morrison: The Pieces I Am end-title song, "High Above the Water”, which was shortlisted for "Best Original Song” at the 2020 Oscars. [2] [3] Bostic's scores also include Sundance award-winning film Clemency (on which she also served as an Executive Producer), Rita Moreno: Just a Girl Who Decided to Go for It , HBO documentary Black Art: In the Absence of Light , and most recently, ABC's limited series Women of the Movement from Emmy-nominated showrunner, Marissa Jo Cerar.
Kathryn Bostic's compositions have been performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, and the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. She is the first artist-in-residence for the MacArthur Award-winning Chicago Sinfonietta. [4]
Bostic has also written for Broadway, most notably collaborating with the award-winning playwright August Wilson on Gem of the Ocean , various productions of his last play Radio Golf , and the Mark Taper production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone directed by Phylicia Rashad. [5] Consequently, Bostic was asked to score the [[PBS] American Masters program August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand, [6] which ultimately inspired her composition "The Great Migration - A Symphony in Celebration of August Wilson", which received its world premiere in January 2018 by the Grammy award-winning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra. [7] [8] Bostic's work on Broadway also includes Bengal Tiger at the Baghdad Zoo with Robin Williams by Pulitzer Prize finalist Rajiv Joseph. Her score garnered a win in the sound design category for this collaboration. [9]
As a solo artist, Bostic has toured extensively in festivals and venues including the Copenhagen Jazz Festival, Ronnie Scott's, Birdland, Tokyo and Osaka Blue Note, and The Pori Jazz Festival. [10] Also a vocalist, Bostic has recorded and performed with many artists including Nas, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and David Byrne.