“Bostic’s tone poem…”Portrait of a Peaceful Warrior” was built on surging rhythm, Copland-like syncopation and a conservative harmonic vocabulary…the work also showed considerable craft in voicing and melodic phrase. It’s easy to imagine this piece having a future life with other ensembles.”
-Chicago Tribune

Kathryn Bostic creates the score for this Sundance Grand Jury award winning film CLEMENCY and song “Slow Train” while Bernadine, portrayed by the brilliant performance of Alfre Woodard, introspects about her troubled marriage.

Composer and singer Kathryn Bostic talks with Chaz Ebert about her work on award winning films CLEMENCY and  TONI MORRISON-THE PIEICES I AM.

On Saturday, January 20, 2018 at 8:00 pm at Heinz Hall for the Performing Arts, Grammy Award-winning conductor Lucas Richman and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra will premiere Kathryn Bostic’s August Wilson Symphony honoring the iconic and award-winning playwright August Wilson. Tony Award winning actress, Phylicia Rashad, will narrate excerpts of his plays.

Venice was a gathering spot for roller dancers back in the 1970s and 80s when the craze made the big screen with films like “Xanadu” and “Roller Boogie.” Bostic created the score for director and filmmaker Kate Hickey.   Kate loved Olivia Newton-John growing up in Australia and loved roller skating, but when she moved to Venice in 2007, she discovered that all the roller dancers were African-American. According to Hickey it was those dancers who never received their due for teaching the actors their moves and this inspired her to make “Roller Dreams.”

Composer Kathryn Bostic (DEAR WHITE PEOPLE, AUGUST WILSON – THE GROUND ON WHICH I STAND) has provided the original music for the Lifetime TV biopic about the first lady of Ruthless Records, recording artist Michel’le. SURVIVING COMPTON: DRE, SUGE & MICHEL’LE premiered last week on October 15, 2016.

Sundance Institute and Time Warner Foundation announced today the ten artists selected for the 2015 Sundance Institute | Time Warner Foundation Fellowship Program, which recognizes and fosters the talent of diverse independent artists.

Kathryn tosses her hat into many rings. She regularly performs live, she’s a singer/songwriter, and scores films. She worked with August Wilson in the early ’00s on Gem of the Ocean, and scored the PBS documentary on August Wilson’s life, The Ground on Which I Stand.

Last year, the film Dear White People — shot at the University of Minnesota and other Twin Cities locations — was a success on the indie circuit that jumped into mainstream conversation. The film’s composer, Kathryn Bostic, created a complex score that didn’t simply support scenes, but introduced new layers of meaning.

There’s a steady stream of exciting musical talent composing terrific work, mostly through the indie world, ensuring that new movies sound as fresh as they look. To pick up our ongoing On The Rise series of ascending stars, which started last week with cinematographers, we’ve picked out a dozen young composers who’ve tickled our eardrums in the last year or so.

Kathryn is a composer, singer, songwriter and musician who has scored several independent features we’ve written about on this site, including Ava DuVernay’s “Middle of Nowhere” and “I Will Follow,” Yoruba Richen’s “Promised Land” and “The New Black,” “Dear White People,” “Soul Food Junkies,” and the forthcoming August Wilson documentary “The Ground on Which I Stand.”

A good score can unite a film, subtly enhancing key moments with flourishes to emotional beats or linking transitions elsewhere. There’s a refined balance between making the music powerful enough to be felt and resonant, while providing something in service to one of the most collaborative creative processes—filmmaking. Musician Kathryn Bostic—a singer/songwriter and composer for stage and screen—mastered the craft and has demonstrated this.

Sundance Institute and Skywalker Sound today announced that the Sundance Institute Music and Sound Design Labs at Skywalker Sound will take place at Skywalker Ranch in 2013 and 2014 and also announced the artists that will participate in the 2013 Labs. This is the first time the two organizations will collaborate to support independent filmmakers and film composers and marks a significant expansion of the Institute’s existing Composers Labs to include sound design.

Whether she’s composing a film score or writing, performing and producing her own country and gospel-tinged solo record, what Kathryn Bostic is really doing is telling a story.

“Kathryn Bostic created a complex score that didn’t simply support scenes, but introduced new layers of meaning.”

“Satirical, smooth,…bitingly elegant (score) to Dear White People.”

“Kathryn Bostic’s solid original score…the movie with the strongest original score/song of 2014.”

“Bostic’s cool combo swings from Ellington-esque jazz romance to uptempo rhythm”

“A seamless blend between pre-fab and original music…score was effective and imaginative.”

“Kathryn Bostic’s musical score lifts every scene.”

“Composer Kathryn Bostic has supplied an instrumental score that complements the action effectively.”

“The magical sense that anything can occur has been vitally left intact. David Lander’s pockets of lighting certainly enhance this quality, as do David Zinn’s simple yet transformative costumes, Kathryn Bostic’s suggestive music…”

“Moisés Kaufman directs with his own earthly intelligence and insight. He brings realism and surrealism to the stage, giving us vivid images, and creating moods of fear and recognition and humor and revulsion… with appropriately “haunting” music by Kathryn Bostic.“

“Director Moises Kaufman has created a vivid and quite filmic production, greatly enhanced by Derek McLane’s set (a wonderful 2-tier affair that eases scene-to-scene transitions). Adding to the overall excellence of the production is David Lander’s expressive lighting, David Zinn’s apt costumes (wisely avoiding anything costum-y for Robin Williams’ Tiger), Kathryn Bostic’s music”

“A potent sense of the inner life of each character reinforced by Kathryn Bostic’s original music.”

“The haunting and evocative musical compositions and arrangements are the work of Kathryn Bostic.”

“Kathryn Bostic’s chilling original music and arrangements provide a spiritually supportive environment for the lushly ritual and ceremonial passage to the City of Bones.”

“The theater’s history and empathy with the playwright show in the richly textured design it provides for “Radio Golf.” David Gallo’s beautiful wreck of a set, with its crumbling bricks and blasted windows surrounding the one repainted room where the developers set up shop, is particularly notable, as is Kathryn Bostic’s lively, mood-deepening music.”

“Special kudos go to composer Kathryn Bostic who brought her Broadway Wilson sensibilities on providing the music and the comfortable and familiar soundtrack to underscore the product.”