Rising Stars: Meet Starr Parodi

Today we’d like to introduce you to Starr Parodi. They and their team shared their story with us below:

Starr Parodi first entered the public eye playing keyboards as part of the house band on the hit late-night Arsenio Hall Show. Since then, she has become a vibrant part of the Los Angeles composing community, scoring hundreds of episodes of TV & film as well as being a passionate and innovative solo artist and GRAMMY® winning producer & pianist whose work has been featured on NPR, THE BBC, KCRW and iHEART Radio.

Her scoring credits include The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry, Michael B. Jordan’s gen: LOCK, Transformers: Rescue Bots, G.I. Joe Renegades, The Starter Wife, Conversations With Other Women, The Division, and hundreds of Hollywood’s most iconic and visible film trailers/promo (Rogue One, Last Samurai, James Bond, Mission: Impossible II, The Peanuts Movie, Harry Potter, Dreamgirls, Night at the Museum, X-Men 3, etc.). Her darkly innovative production/arrangement of the JAMES BOND Theme (RIAA Gold Record) was credited by Forbes magazine as “reinventing the modern action movie trailer.”

As a multi award-winning composer, Starr is the first woman to have her orchestral works performed in the 90-year history of the Festival of Arts – Pageant of the Masters in Laguna, CA, where she is currently a featured composer.

Starr has released three critically acclaimed solo albums and collaborated on the writing and production of numerous recordings. Her album COMMON PLACES won “Record of the Year” from Solo Piano Radio and was lauded by KCRW’s host and tastemaker Chris Douridas “This deeply passionate and beautiful recording is one of the best albums of the year.” Her neo-classical release, THE HEART OF FRIDA, which celebrates the life, art and courageous spirit of beloved artist Frida Kahlo, won awards for Solo Piano Album of the Year from both International Radio Broadcasters and solopiano.com.

In 2017, for ”The Women in the World Summit” hosted by Scarlett Johansson, the New York Times invited Starr to Lincoln Center to conduct “To All The Little Girls,” a music video and performance she produced and arranged with Oscar-winning filmmaker Terry Sanders, which celebrates the potential of young women. In 2019 Starr was again featured at Lincoln Center with a world premiere of her concert work “The Joy of the Waters” as part of the Grammy® winning “Women Warriors: Voices of Change.”

Starr has won numerous awards including a 2021 Hollywood Music in Media Award (HMMA) for Best Contemporary Classical, was honored with both the 2021 SHE ROCKS – VISION Award, the 2022 BMI IMPACT Award, and is a featured composer and artist on the iconic recording “Women Warriors: The Voices of Change” which won the Grammy® in 2022. As a producer and featured artist, Starr won the 2023 Grammy® award in the Classical Compendium category on Kitt Wakeley’s An Adoption Story.

A trailblazer onstage and in the studio, Starr served as President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers (March 2019- March 2021), currently is a co-chair of the AWFC advisory board and is widely recognized as a leader in expanding the reach of women in the arts as a composer, producer, performer and cultural visionary.

I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
No, not a smooth road as there were very few women playing in bands or scoring to picture when I started so not a lot of support for what I was doing from society as a whole, but definitely great support from bandmates and friends. It’s been quite a non-linear path full of unexpected twists and turns, usually facilitated by leaving my comfort zone and being open and saying yes to unexpected opportunities.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I compose music for film/television/live concerts and all media. I’m also a pianist and Steinway Artist and record solo piano albums as well as play concerts as a solo artist and also in collaboration with others. I also often play piano/keyboards and multi-instruments on recordings of the film.TV scores I compose. I was honored to serve as the 3rd president for the Alliance For Women Film Composers (AWFC) from 2019-2021 and advocated to help amplify and elevate the work of women composers. I have had a very multi-faceted career – everything from playing at the inauguration of President Clinton to touring with R&B and soul bands (George Howard & Marilyn McCoo) to playing keyboards on the late-night hit talk show “The Arsenio Hall Show” nightly for six years, ghostwriting for a variety of network TV shows in my early twenties with an orchestra every week, scoring hundreds of Movie Trailers (everything for MGM for nine years as well as freelance for other studios) including creating a new arrangement of the James Bond Theme which was an RIAA-certified gold record, and created the 1990s era United Artist Logo.

I have been a featured composer for the Laguna Beach Festival of Arts-Pageant of the Masters for the past 15 years. Have scored hundreds of episodes of Television and many feature films, including “The Storied Life of AJ Fikry” which came out in theaters in October and is now streaming on Amazon & Hulu. I was part of a groundbreaking project that made its debut at Lincoln Center in 2019 called “Women Warriors: The Voices of Change”, which explores the history of women as well as social justice causes with music from all female composers. This project has won over 20 international film awards and won a Grammy in 2022. I was a producer and featured artist on an album called “An Adoption Story” by Kitt Wakeley and I received a Grammy this year (2023) for my work on that project.

Alright so before we go can you talk to us a bit about how people can work with you, collaborate with you or support you?
To me, collaboration with the filmmakers, with musicians, and with other artists is so rewarding. And the thought that as a composer, we are basically creating something that hasn’t existed before and that hopefully will touch people’s lives in a positive way – is really exciting and rewarding to me.

The public can support me and artists like me by listening, liking and saving my music on digital streaming services like Spotify/Apple Music/Amazon and also downloading my music from iTunes.

Contact Info:

• Website: starrparodi.com
• Instagram: starr.parodi
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/starrparodimusic
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/starr-parodi-402a882/
• Twitter: @StarrParodi
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0UF6vz4WPTBdXRvRzkGdFA
• Other: https://open.spotify.com/artist/4wMTcGiDCOJ5XkpbeyMU3m

Image Credits
Gina Conte (B & W photo at piano, close up on hands on keys, & brown jacket w keyboards in the BG and hair pulled back) Lisa Margolis (photo in the green jacket arms folded at the piano) Suzie Katayama – picture of me conducting the orchestra all others are personal pics from my phone