Starr Parodi
Grammy® award-winning artist, composer & producer, Starr Parodi first entered the public eye playing keyboards as part of the house band on the hit late-night Arsenio Hall Show, and has played, toured or recorded with a wide array of treasured artists including Carole King, George Howard, BB King, Al Green, Celine Dion, Phil Keaggy & Whitney Houston among many others. Parodi has gone on to become a prominent voice in the Los Angeles media‑music community having written and produced music for hundreds of episodes of television, feature films and film trailers/advertising campaigns. She is also a celebrated and innovative solo artist & pianist whose solo piano recordings and concert works have been widely acclaimed and featured on NPR, BBC radio, KCRW, Classical KUSC and iHEART Radio.
Her scoring credits include The Storied Life Of A.J. Fikry (awarded BEST SCORE FOR COMEDY FILM - Movie Music International Awards), Michael B. Jordan’s gen:LOCK, Transformers: Rescue Bots, G.I. Joe Renegades, The Starter Wife (Debra Messing), Conversations With Other Women (Helena Bonham Carter, Aaron Eckhart), The Division (John Hamm/Taraji Henson), and hundreds of Hollywood's most iconic and visible film trailers/promo (Rogue One, Last Samurai, James Bond, Mission: Impossible II, Zoolander, Harry Potter, Dreamgirls, Night at the Museum, X-Men 3, United Artists Logo, Sony Imageworks Logo, 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 producer and featured artist, Starr won the 2023 Grammy® award in the Classical Compendium category for her work on Kitt Wakeley’s An Adoption Story.
Parodi is a composer and featured artist on Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, which won the Grammy® in 2022 and also premiered at Lincoln Center with Orchestra Moderne under the baton of Amy Andersson. She was also the score producer with the London Royal Philharmonic for the 2024 Grammy® winning album Alkebulan II.
Starr is the first woman composer to have her orchestral work performed in the 90+ year‑history of the Pageant of the Masters in Laguna Beach, California and remains a featured composer for their productions.
Honored with both the 2021 SHE ROCKS - VISION Award, and 2022 BMI IMPACT Award, Starr also received a HOLLYWOOD MUSIC IN MEDIA AWARD (HMMA) for Best Contemporary Classical, for her composition The Joy Of The Waters.
The New York Times invited Starr to Lincoln Center for The Women in the World Summit hosted by Scarlett Johansson, 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.
Parodi is celebrated for her versatility: whether she is scoring high‑impact visual media, crafting solo piano works, or composing commissioned orchestral/choral pieces, she brings a vivid sense of narrative and color to sound. Oxford University Press author and former Keyboard Magazine editor Mark Vail put it: “Parodi’s pianistic sense … goes way beyond creative. Words that come to mind while listening include imaginative, courageous, dynamic, passionate, gutsy, pensive, restrained, and euphoric.…” Her work often bridges the cinematic, the classical and the contemporary —with emotional depth and a mastery of texture and orchestral color.
Her solo piano album Common Places was awarded RECORD OF THE YEAR by 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 neoclassical album The Heart of Frida, inspired by the life and art of Frida Kahlo, won multiple awards for SOLO PIANO ALBUM OF THE YEAR.
Starr has had the honor of being a guest speaker, connecting with students and talking about music (composition and production) at many top tier Universities including NYU, USC, UCLA, University of Oklahoma, University of Houston, Berklee, Musicians Institute and San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
Beyond her personal creative work, Parodi is a committed advocate for equity and representation in the field of music composition for media. Starr served as President of the Alliance for Women Film Composers (March 2019- March 2021) where she helped build mentorship programs, international outreach, and visibility for women composers and continues to be active on their Advisory Board.
A trailblazer onstage and in the studio, she is a dynamic presence in contemporary music: a composer who balances precision and imagination, a pianist with emotional depth, a producer with creative insight, and a leader dedicated to fostering musical opportunities.
"If you listen closely you can hear the ghosts in her music." - R.J. Lannan