Joe Kraemer (composer)

Joe Kraemer
Kraemer at the 2019 WonderCon
Background information
Born (1971-06-21) June 21, 1971 (age 52)
Buffalo, New York, United States
GenresFilm score
Occupation(s)Composer, conductor
Years active1986-present

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 (2012), and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015).

Biography

Kraemer was born in Buffalo, New York and raised in Albany, New York. 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 and Christopher McQuarrie.

While attending Berklee College of Music 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-winner Christopher McQuarrie. The film starred Benicio del Toro, Ryan Phillippe, and James Caan. 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 action thriller Jack Reacher (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. 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.

In 2017, Kraemer composed the score for the teen anthology series Creeped Out on CBBC.

Filmography

Film

Year Title Director Notes
1998 Burn Scott Storm
1999 Chi Girl Heidi Van Lier
2000 The Way of the Gun Christopher McQuarrie Also conductor
Slammed Michael Gene Brown
2004 Open House Dan Mirvish Composed with Andrew Melton
Somewhere Thomas Whelan
Dynamite Walter Baltzer
2005 All Souls Day Jeremy Kasten
House of the Dead 2 Michael Hurst
My Big Fat Independent Movie Philip Zlotorynski Composed with Jeremy Sweet
The Poseidon Adventure John Putch
2006 Monday Heidi Van Lier
Ten 'til Noon Scott Storm
Room 6 Michael Hurst
Grand Junction Freddy F. Hakimi
The Thirst Jeremy Kasten
Dead and Deader Patrick Dinhut
The Darkroom Michael Hurst
2008 Joy Ride 2: Dead Ahead Louis Morneau
2010 Confession of a Gangster Kenneth Castillo
2012 Jack Reacher Christopher McQuarrie Also conductor

BMI Film Music Award for Best Film Music

2013 Favor Paul Osborne
2014 Dawn Patrol Daniel Petrie Jr.
2015 Boned Laura Lee Bahr Composed with Jeremy Broomfield
Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation Christopher McQuarrie Also conductor
Original Mission: Impossible themes by Lalo Schifrin
IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for an Action/Adventure/Thriller Film
World Soundtrack Award for Discovery of the Year
2016 Blood Moon Kenneth Kokin
2018 Cruel Hearts Paul Osborne Composed with Ian Arber and John Massari
The Man Who Killed Hitler and Then the Bigfoot Robert D. Krzykowski
2020 Emily and the Magical Journey Marcus Ovnell Previously called Faunutland and the Lost Magic
2022 Old Man Lucky McKee

Television

Year Title Studio Episode(s)
1997 Cartoon Sushi MTV
Teletoon
1
2009 Misadventures in Matchmaking 5
2011 Femme Fatales Cinemax 8
2017 Comrade Detective Amazon Video 6
Creeped Out CBBC
Family Channel
13

Audiobooks

Since 2015, Kraemer has been providing music and sound design to a number of audio plays released by Big Finish Productions. At first, these were mainly Doctor Who Monthly Adventures plays, but Kraemer has moved to work mainly on spin-offs from the main range.

Year Title Music Sound Design
2015 Doctor Who: The Defectors Yes Yes
2016 Doctor Who: Absolute Power
2017 Doctor Who: Vortex Ice / Cortex Fire
Doctor Who: The Behemoth With Josh Arakelian
Doctor Who: Static
2018 Doctor Who: Kingdom of Lies
Doctor Who: The Helliax Rift
Jenny - The Doctor's Daughter
Doctor Who: Red Planets
Doctor Who: The Dispossessed
Doctor Who: The Quantum Possibility Engine
2019 Missy: Series 1
The Eighth of March With Nigel Fairs and Howard Carter
The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 1 Yes
Transference No
Rose Tyler: The Dimension Cannon With Josh Arakelian
The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 2
The Robots 1
2020 The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 3
Missy: Series 2 No
The Robots 2 Yes
The Paternoster Gang: Heritage 4
The Robots 3 No
2021 Masterful Yes
Space 1999: Volume 1 Incidental No
Thunderbirds: Terror from the Stars Yes No
The Box of Delights
First Action Bureau Series 01
The Robots 4 With Kristin Simpson
Doctor Who: The God of Phantoms Yes

This page was last updated at 2024-02-10 21:40 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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