Kathryn Bostic is a composer and artist known for her work on award-winning films, TV, and live theater. She is a recipient of numerous fellowships and awards including the Sundance Institute/Time Warner Fellowship, which in part funded the development of The August Wilson Symphony, Sundance Fellowships for Feature Film Scoring, Sundance/Skywalker Documentary Film Scoring, BMI Conducting Fellowship, and Best Music in Film by the African American Film Critics Association. In 2016 she became the first female African American score composer to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Bostic was the vice president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from 2016-2018. Bostic's scores and songs can be heard in productions with a lineup of award-winning directors and writers. She scored the critically acclaimed documentary, which premiered at Sundance 2019, followed by a theatrical release with Magnolia Pictures. The film won Best Biographical Documentary at the fourth annual Critics' Choice Documentary Awards. Bostic also wrote and performed its end-title song "High Above the Water", which was shortlisted for "Best Original Song" for the 2020 Oscars. Her score was nominated for a 2019 Hollywood Music In Media Award. At the Society of Composers & Lyricists' inaugural awards in January 2020, Bostic was awarded Outstanding Score for an Independent Film, while "High Above the Water" was nominated for Outstanding Original Song for Visual Media. For the Sundance Grand Jury Winner Clemency, released with Neon Pictures in December 2019, Bostic provided the original score, wrote and performed the featured original song "Slow Train," and served as executive producer. In the concert world, Bostic most recently premiered a new work at a Masterworks concert "Tovaangar: Coronation and Chaos," commissioned and performed by the Bangor Symphony Orchestra. Bostic has written for Broadway, most notably collaborating with the award-winning playwright August Wilson on Gem of the Ocean and various productions of his last play Radio Golf as well as the Mark Taper production of Joe Turner's Come and Gone directed by Phylicia Rashad. Consequently, Bostic was asked to score the PBS American Masters program August Wilson: The Ground On Which I Stand. Reflecting on Wilson's career, this documentary inspired her to write "The August Wilson Symphony," which received its world premiere in January 2018 by the Grammy Award-winning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Grammy Award-winning conductor and composer Lucas Richman. In addition to her work with August Wilson, Bostic's work on Broadway 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. She has been nominated for several additional awards including the Ovation Award, NAACP Theater Award, and Drama Desk nomination for "Outstanding Music in a Play." As a solo artist, Bostic 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. Also a vocalist, Bostic recorded and performed with many artists including Nas, Ryuichi Sakamoto, and David Byrne.
