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Pinar Toprak

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Pinar Toprak
Born (1980-10-18) 18 October 1980 (age 44)
Istanbul, Turkey
Alma materBerklee College of Music
Musical career
GenresFilm and television scores, electronic, ambient, jazz
OccupationComposer
InstrumentsPiano, keyboards, synthesizer, violin, guitar
Years active2000–present
Websitepinartoprak.com

Pinar Toprak (born 18 October 1980) is a Turkish-born American composer, conductor, and musician, who specializes in creating thematic scores.

Early life and education

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Toprak was born and grew up in Istanbul, Turkey. Her father was an accountant who supported Toprak's interest in music and movies, particularly westerns and Superman. Toprak has said she was always drawn to superheroes and comic books growing up.[1] She memorized the dialogue from the 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve, and dubbed it to Turkish.[2][3]

Toprak enrolled in the Istanbul State Conservatory, the oldest conservatory in Turkey. During her studies there, she focused on composition and multi-instrumentalism.[4] She began as a violinist and later switched to guitar."[2]

She finished high school at 16, and, after her 17th birthday, moved to the United States. She lived with her brother in Wisconsin where she completed a short ESL program before enrolling at Berklee. During that time, she found work as a jazz guitarist and pianist."[2]

She received her Bachelor of Music in Film Scoring from Berklee in 2000 when she was 19 years old.[5][6][7] Following her move to Los Angeles, she received a Master's in Classical Composition from the California State University, Northridge in 2002.[6] It was at CSUN where she was recommended for an internship at Paramount Pictures at the age of 20.[6]

Career

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At Paramount, she attended scoring sessions[2] and worked for Hans Zimmer's production company, Media Ventures International (now Remote Control).[8] She also trained in programming sample instruments.[6] She left Zimmer's company after a year to work as assistant to composer William Ross.[6]

In 2006, she composed the score for the video game Ninety-Nine Nights,[8] and then for Behind Enemy Lines 2. From that time onward, she worked on more than forty feature films and several video-game and television projects. She worked on the fanfare of Skydance Media from 2010 to 2022.[5]

Among her work was the score for the romantic comedy The Lightkeepers (2009), which won the 2010 International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Award for Best Comedy Score.[8] Toprak's score for The Lightkeepers made it to the 2011 Academy Award Shortlist for Best Original Score.[8] She composed the music to the documentary The Wind Gods (2011) for which she received a second IFMCA award for Best Documentary Score in 2011. In 2017, she was hired by director Dean Devlin to compose the score for Geostorm but was laid off after production companies Warner Bros. and Skydance Media hired a new director for the movie's reshoots. The same year, composer Danny Elfman hired Toprak to write additional scores for the 2017 DC superhero movie, Justice League (Dir. Zack Snyder).[2]

Toprak auditioned and pitched a main theme for the film Captain Marvel, which became a hit. She is the first woman to ever score a major superhero movie, and the first to compose for a film that made more than $1 billion.[5]

In 2019, she received a nomination for the World Soundtrack Awards.[9][10]

Toprak's other works include the score for the 2018–2019 series, Krypton, prequel to the Superman series; DC's television series, Stargirl; and the HBO limited series, McMillions (2020), for which she was nominated for a Primetime Emmy Award for Original Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special.[11] She is the first Turkish composer to be nominated for an Emmy.[12] Her work on the 2018 movie The Tides of Fate earned her the 2019 ASCAP Shirley Walker Award, and also, her third IFMCA Award for Best Original Score for a Documentary Film in 2019.[4]

In 2022, Amazon picked Toprak to compose and conduct a new theme for its Thursday Night Football telecasts, marking the first time a woman composer wrote an original theme for the National Football League. Toprak recorded it at the Ocean Way studio in Nashville with an 70-piece orchestra.[13] The new theme was met with wide praise.[14][15][13]

Personal life

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In 2008, Toprak married Thanos Kazakos, a music composer and sound design major from Greece. They had met at Berklee, and had a daughter. They divorced in 2013.[2]

She currently resides in Los Angeles.[4]

Discography

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Key
† Denotes films that have not yet been released

Film

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Year Title Director Notes
2004 Hold The Rice Alfonso Pineda Ulloa Short film
Headbreaker
2005 When All Else Fails David Ellison
2006 Behind Enemy Lines II: Axis of Evil James Dodson
2007 Daydreamer Brahman Turner
Sinner Marc Benardout
Fall Down Dead Jon Keeyes
In the Name of the Son Harun Mehmedinović Short film
Say It in Russian Jeff Celentano
2008 Ocean of Pearls Sarab Singh Neelam with Karsh Kale & Snatam Kaur
Light of Olympia San Wei Chan Animated feature
Pregnant in America Steve Buonaugurio Documentary
2009 The Crimson Mask Elias Plagianos
Breaking Point Jeff Celentano
The Lightkeepers Daniel Adams
2011 Last Will Brent Huff
The River Murders Rich Cowan
Girls! Girls! Girls! Shana Betz
Beth Grant
Tracie Laymon
Jennifer Lynch
Barbara Stepansky
America Young 		with Heather Schmidt
2012 Vamperifica Bruce Ornstein
How to Have a Happy Marriage Jennifer Lynch
Restos Alfonso Pineda Ulloa Short film
2013 The Wind Gods Fritz Mitchell Documentary film
2015 The Challenger Kent Moran
The Curse of Downers Grove Derick Martini
In Utero Kathleen Man Gyllenhaal Documentary film
2017 The Chainbreakers Rui Yang with Emir Işılay
The Monster Project Victor Mathieu
Justice League[16] Zack Snyder Additional music
Main score by Danny Elfman
2018 The Angel Ariel Vromen
The Tides of Fate Fritz Mitchell Documentary
2019 Purl Kristen Lester Animated short film
Captain Marvel[17] Anna Boden
Ryan Fleck 		Also writer of Captain Marvel theme in Avengers: Endgame
Skyfire Simon West
2020 It's Time Frank Waldeck
2021 Us Again[18] Zach Parrish Animated short film
2022 The Lost City Aaron Nee
Adam Nee
Slumberland Francis Lawrence
2023 Shotgun Wedding Jason Moore
PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie[19] Cal Brunker Toprak’s first score for a full-length animated film
Replaced Heitor Pereira
Family Switch McG

Television

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Year Title Notes
2008 Beyond Loch Ness Television film
Ogre
Ba'al
2009 Wyvern
2010 Mongolian Death Worm
Medium Raw: Night of the Wolf
2015 Clan of the Cave Bear
2016 Falling Water 4 episodes
2018–2019 Krypton 20 episodes
2020–2022 Stargirl[20] 39 episodes
2020 McMillions 6 episodes
2022–present Prime Video Sports[21] Theme song
2024 Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft 8 episodes

Video games

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Year Title Notes
2006 Ninety-Nine Nights With Takayuki Nakamura
2017 Fortnite Additional music
2023 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

Other work

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Awards and nominations

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Year Recipient Award[4][11][10][12][24][25] Category Result
2010 The Lightkeepers International Film Music Critics Association Awards Best Original Score for a Comedy Film Won
2011 The Wind Gods Best Original Score for a Documentary Film Won
2019 The Tides of Fate Won
American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers Awards Shirley Walker Award Won
Captain Marvel World Soundtrack Awards Public Choice Award Nominated
2020 McMillions: Episode 1 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special Nominated
2024 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora Grammy Awards Best Score Soundtrack for Video Games and Other Interactive Media Nominated

References

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  1. ^ "White Bear PR Composer Talk with Pinar Toprak". YouTube. 19 May 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d e f Greiving, Tim (27 October 2020). "The Billion-Dollar Composer". Alta Online. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  3. ^ Guerrasio, Jason (24 August 2018). "Inside the inspiring journey of 'Captain Marvel' composer Pinar Toprak, from moving to America at 17 to becoming the first female composer of a Marvel movie". Business Insider. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d "About". Pinar Toprak. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  5. ^ a b c "Composer Pinar Toprak Cracks Celluloid Ceiling with Captain Marvel | Berklee College of Music". Berklee website. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  6. ^ a b c d e "Breaking a Sound Barrier with Captain Marvel | Berklee College of Music". www.berklee.edu. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  7. ^ "Interview with Pinar Toprak – Fade to Her". FadeToHer. Archived from the original on 6 December 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  8. ^ a b c d "Pinar Toprak: Super Scores". Headliner. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  9. ^ "Second Wave of Nominees 19th World Soundtrack Awards Revealed". World Soundtrack Awards. Archived from the original on 16 October 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  10. ^ a b "20 ASCAP Screen Music Greats Nominated for World Soundtrack Awards". ASCAP. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  11. ^ a b "Pinar Toprak". IMDb. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  12. ^ a b "Pınar Toprak becomes first Turkish composer nominee for Emmys". Hürriyet Daily News. 24 August 2020. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  13. ^ a b Newman, Melinda (18 August 2022). "Pinar Toprak Composes New Theme for Prime Video's 'Thursday Night Football': Hear It Now". Billboard. Retrieved 2 January 2024. The driving, propulsive track soars and builds with a tension that mimics the tense action on the field.
  14. ^ Berlingame, Joe (19 July 2022). "'Captain Marvel' Composer Pinar Toprak Pens Theme for Amazon Prime's 'Thursday Night Football'". Variety. Retrieved 2 January 2024. A triumphal, brass- and drum-heavy earworm that builds in intensity and power over its full three-minute duration.
  15. ^ Bumbaca, Chris (18 August 2022). "'A new NFL tradition': Prime Video releases theme song for 'Thursday Night Football'". USA Today. Retrieved 2 January 2024. You listen to this once, you're humming the theme.
  16. ^ "Pinar Toprak". IMDb. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  17. ^ "'Captain Marvel' Enlists Pinar Toprak as Composer". The Hollywood Reporter. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  18. ^ "Pinar Toprak Scoring Zach Parrish's Disney Animated Short 'Us Again'". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  19. ^ "Pinar Toprak to Score Cal Brunker's 'PAW Patrol: The Mighty Movie'". Film Music Reporter. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  20. ^ "Season 2 Episode 11 | Pinar Toprak took a pivotal trip to Tower Records". SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  21. ^ "Prime Video Sports Theme". Youtube Music. 17 August 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  22. ^ "Home Page – Pinar Toprak". pinartoprak.com. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  23. ^ "I've had the incredible honor to write the opening for Christina Aguilera's (...)". Facebook. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  24. ^ "Pinar Toprak". Television Academy. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
  25. ^ "Pinar Toprak receives her IFMCA Award for The Lightkeepers". IFMCA: International Film Music Critics Association. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 31 December 2023.
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