Joe Kraemer (composer)

Joe Kraemer (born June 21, 1971) is an American composer and conductor of film and television scores. He is known for his collaborations with director Christopher McQuarrie, having composed the scores to The Way of the Gun (2000), Jack Reacher (2012), and Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015).

Joe Kraemer
Kraemer at the 2019 WonderCon
Background information
Born	(1971-06-21) June 21, 1971 Buffalo, New York, United States
Genres	Film score
Occupation(s)	Composer, conductor
Years active	1986-present
Website	http://www.joekraemer.com/

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.[1] Storm later introduced Kraemer to filmmakers Bryan Singer and Christopher McQuarrie.[1]

While attending Berklee School 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.[1]

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. [Note 1]

Over the next few years, Kraemer scored music for the hit Cinemax 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, the film grossed more than $200 million worldwide, making it by far the most high-profile project in Kraemer's portfolio. His score was nominated in the Best Original Score - Feature Film category at the 2012 Hollywood Music In Media Awards.[3] His credits also include the 2014 film Dawn Patrol, starring Scott Eastwood.[4]

On the strength of this success, Kraemer was hired to score the fifth film in Cruise's mega-successful Mission: Impossible franchise, Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation (2015).[5]

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.[6]

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	1st collaboration with Scott Storm
1999	Chi Girl	Heidi Van Lier
2000	The Way of the Gun	Christopher McQuarrie	1st collaboration with 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	2nd collaboration with 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	2nd collaboration with 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	3rd collaboration with Christopher McQuarrie Also conductor 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
2019	Faunutland and the Lost Magic	Marcus Ovnell	Post-production

Television

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

Notes

1. "Kraemer was heralded as one of film music’s ‘next big things’ following his excellent score for the thriller The Way of the Gun in 2000."[2]

References

1. Caschetto, Maurizio (4 February 2013). "Reaching Back to the Classic Film Score: Interview with Joe Kraemer". ColonneSonore. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
2. Broxton, Jonathan (January 15, 2013). "Jack Reacher - Joe Kraemer". Movie Music UK. WordPress.com. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
3. Goldwasser, Dan (16 January 2013). "Joe Kraemer scores Jack Reacher". Scoring Sessions. Warm Butter Design. Retrieved 25 November 2014.
4. Jonman492000 (29 September 2016). "AN INTERVIEW WITH COMPOSER JOE KRAEMER". WordPress. Retrieved 2 August 2018.
5. Frog, George E. (19 September 2014). "Joe Kraemer to Score 'Mission: Impossible 5". Film Music Reporter. eFrog. Retrieved 3 September 2018.
6. "SUNRISE: A Song of Two Humans with new score by Joe Kraemer, premieres Oct. 18th". Dallas Chamber Symphony. 22 September 2016. Retrieved 2 August 2018.

External links

• Joe Kraemer on IMDb
• Kraemer scores Jack Reacher
• Composer Joe Kraemer Delivers Classic Score for ‘Jack Reacher’