Joe Kraemer (born June 21, 1971) is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. He has worked with director
Christopher McQuarrie several times -- ''
The Way of the Gun'' (2000), ''
Jack Reacher
Jack Reacher is the protagonist of a series of crime thriller novels by British author Lee Child, a 2012 film adaptation, its 2016 sequel, and a television series on Amazon Prime Video. In the stories, Jack Reacher was a major in the U.S. ...
'' (2012), and ''
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation'' (2015).
Biography
Kraemer was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in
Albany, New York
Albany ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It is located on the west bank of the Hudson River, about south of its confluence with the Mohawk River. Albany is the oldes ...
. His father and uncle were both musicians, and Kraemer began taking piano lessons at an early age. In high school he befriended an older boy named
Scott Storm, who became a professional filmmaker. Kraemer's first film score was for a Super-8 film written and directed by Storm, called ''Chiming Hour''. Kraemer, who also acted in the film, was 15 at the time.
Storm later introduced Kraemer to filmmakers
Bryan Singer
Bryan Jay Singer (born September 17, 1965) is an American filmmaker. He is the founder of Bad Hat Harry Productions and has produced almost all of the films he has directed, as well as multiple television series.
After graduating from the Univ ...
and
Christopher McQuarrie.
While attending
Berklee College of Music
Berklee College of Music () is a Private university, private music college in Boston, Boston, Massachusetts. It is the largest independent college of contemporary music in the world. Known for the study of jazz and modern Music of the United ...
in Boston, Kraemer decided he wanted to be a film composer. Through contacts such as Singer and McQuarrie, he was able to obtain work first as a sound (and occasionally music) editor, before eventually crossing over into television and film composing.
Kraemer's first feature film score was the 2000 film ''
The Way of the Gun'', a modern-day western written and directed by
Oscar
Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to:
People and fictional and mythical characters
* Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar
* Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...
-winner Christopher McQuarrie. The film starred
Benicio del Toro
Benicio Monserrate Rafael del Toro Sánchez (; born February 19, 1967) is a Puerto Rico, Puerto Rican actor. List of awards and nominations received by Benicio del Toro, His accolades include an Academy Awards, Academy Award, a British Academy ...
,
Ryan Phillippe
Matthew Ryan Phillippe ( ; born September 10, 1974) is an American actor. After appearing as Billy Douglas (One Life to Live), Billy Douglas on the soap opera ''One Life to Live'' (1992–1993) and making his feature film debut in ''Crimson Tide ...
, and
James Caan
James Edmund Caan ( ; March 26, 1940 – July 6, 2022) was an American actor. He came to prominence playing Sonny Corleone in ''The Godfather'' (1972), for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, Academy Award an ...
. Though the film performed poorly at the box office, it became something of a cult classic, and some industry insiders began to expect great things from Kraemer.
Over the next few years, Kraemer scored music for the hit TV series ''
Femme Fatales'', the docudrama ''Emerald Cowboy'' (2003); in 2006 he teamed up with his old classmate Scott Storm for the low-budget crime thriller ''
Ten 'til Noon'', which won awards at the film festival level; and in 2008 he scored the direct-to-video thriller ''
Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead'', written by
J. J. Abrams.
In 2012, Kraemer got his chance, composing the score for the
Tom Cruise
Thomas Cruise Mapother IV (born July 3, 1962) is an American actor and film producer. Regarded as a Cinema of the United States, Hollywood icon, he has received List of awards and nominations received by Tom Cruise, various accolades, includ ...
action thriller ''
Jack Reacher
Jack Reacher is the protagonist of a series of crime thriller novels by British author Lee Child, a 2012 film adaptation, its 2016 sequel, and a television series on Amazon Prime Video. In the stories, Jack Reacher was a major in the U.S. ...
'' (directed by McQuarrie). His score was nominated in the Best Original Score - Feature Film category at the 2012 Hollywood Music In Media Awards. His credits also include the 2014 film ''
Dawn Patrol'', starring
Scott Eastwood.
Kraemer worked with McQuarrie and Cruise again when he scored the fifth film in the ''Mission: Impossible'' franchise, ''
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation'' (2015).
Since 2015, Kraemer has been providing music and sound design to a number of audio plays released by
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...
. These include spin-offs for Doctor Who characters such as Madam Vastra, Missy and Rose Tyler, starring the original actors.
In 2016, Kraemer was commissioned by the
Dallas Chamber Symphony to write new music for
F.W. Murnau's ''
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans''. The score premiered on October 18, 2016 at
Moody Performance Hall with
Richard McKay conducting. Selections from the score were recorded and released on Caldera Records.
In 2017, Kraemer composed the score for the teen anthology series ''
Creeped Out'' on
CBBC
CBBC is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the brand used for all BBC content for children aged 6 to 12. Its sister c ...
.
Filmography
Film
Television
Audiobooks
Since 2015, Kraemer has been providing music and sound design to a number of audio plays released by
Big Finish Productions
Big Finish Productions is a British company that produces books and radio drama, audio plays (released straight to compact disc and for download in MP3 and m4b format) based, primarily, on science fiction properties. These include ''Doctor Who'' ...
.
At first, these were mainly
Doctor Who Monthly Adventures plays, but Kraemer has moved to work mainly on spin-offs from the main range.
Notes
References
External links
*
Kraemer scores Jack ReacherComposer Joe Kraemer Delivers Classic Score for ‘Jack Reacher’Big Finish Productions with Joe Kraemer
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kraemer, Joe
1971 births
American classical composers
American film score composers
Living people
American television composers
20th-century American composers
21st-century American composers
Musicians from Buffalo, New York
Musicians from Albany, New York
Berklee College of Music alumni
American male classical composers
American male film score composers
American male television composers
Classical musicians from New York (state)
20th-century American male musicians
21st-century American male musicians