Women Warriors: The Voices of Change

Composers
NATHALIE BONIN
MIRIAM CUTLER
SHARON FARBER
PENKA KOUNEVA
STARR PARODI
LOLITA RITMANIS

Conductor
AMY ANDERSSON

MODERATED BY CATHERINE JOY
(President of The Alliance for Women Film Composers)

Screening Links available upon Registration

YouTube Live Stream Q&A:
Monday, October 18, 6:30 PM PT

Women Warriors: The Voices of Change is a ground-breaking concert creation that honors the strength and heroism of global activists fighting for social justice, human and civil rights, LGBTQ rights, environmental causes, minority rights, gender equality, and the right of every girl to an education. Premiered at Lincoln Center, New York City in September 2019, this sold-out concert brought the audience to tears and standing ovations. Not Rated | 69min

Nathalie Bonin is an award-winning violinist and composer from Montreal, Canada who is now based in Los Angeles. Nathalie worked as a composer and soloist for the Women Warriors: The Voices of Change concert and documentary. She has scored the music for five Hallmark movies, short films, and television series in various genres as well as numerous theme songs and soundtracks for worldwide audiences. Her compositions have been licensed on TF1, BBC, RTS, PBS, ESPN, MLB, Radio- Canada, and NBC including the popular series New Amsterdam and The Oprah Conversations. Nathalie is the Founder and Owner of Kinémuse Productions inc. in Montréal, Canada since 2015.

Miriam Cutler is an Emmy-nominated composer who is passionate about documentaries. Her work includes Sundance, Emmy, and Oscar-nominated films: RBG, Love Gilda, Flannery, The Hunting Ground, Ethel, Lost in La Mancha, Thin, Poster Girl, Vito, Kings Point, Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, A Plastic Ocean, and more. Miriam co-produced and scored Dark Money and One Lucky Elephant. Advisor at the Sundance Composers Lab, doc juror for Sundance, Independent Spirit Awards, AFI, and more. TV Academy Music Branch Exec committee member, AMPAS Documentary Branch member, and Founding Member of The Alliance for Women Film Composers. She co-produced live jazz albums including Joe Williams, Nina Simone, Shirley Horn, Marlena Shaw.

Sharon Farber is a four-time Emmy Award Nominated, Winner of the 2013 Society of Composers and Lyricists Award for Outstanding Work in the Art of Film Music, the 2012 Visionary Award In Music by The Women’s International Film & Television Showcase, winner of the Telly Award, and a member of The Academy of Motion Pictures. A graduate of the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Film scoring and Concert composition (dual major), Sharon has been working with networks and cable broadcasters like NBC, CBS, Showtime, and The WB as well as writing music for feature films. Her score for the film When Nietzsche Wept was commercially released and performed live in a film music concert. In the concert music world, Sharon has many national and international credits to her name, including The Los Angeles Master Chorale, Pacific Serenade Ensemble, The Israeli Chamber Orchestra, The Northwest Sinfonietta, The Bellingham Symphony, Orange County Women’s Chorale, Culver City Symphony Orchestra, The Jewish Symphony Orchestra, iPalpiti Artists International, and more.

Penka Kouneva is a Hollywood composer whose music has been called “fantastic” (Billboard) and “breath-taking” (NPR). Her credits include Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and League of Legends video games, a Harry Potter VR experience, a $30M multimedia exhibit Heroes and Legends at the Kennedy Space Center, and the CW episodic TV series Pandora , co-scored with Joe Kraemer. Penka’s film scores include the features Devil’s Whisper, Encounter (Sony Pictures), Aga (the 2020 Oscar contended in Foreign Languages), and the award-winning documentary Zero Gravity. Penka’s composer awards include Sundance Fellowship, Distinguished Duke Alumna, and the Recognition Award from Game Audio Network Guild. In 2019 Penka was commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic for the concert America In Space at the Hollywood Bowl; in January 2020, Penka scored the Olay Super Bowl TV commercial campaign Make Space For Women.

Starr Parodi first came on the scene playing keyboards as part of the house band on the hit late-night Arsenio Hall Show and has performed or recorded with artists from Carole King, Al Green, Mavis Staples, Ray Charles to Mariah Carey.  As a composer, Starr’s illustrious credits span feature films, episodic television (gen:LOCK, The Starter Wife, Transformers: Rescue Bots, G.I. Joe: Renegades), concert works, and hundreds of iconic movie trailers (James Bond, Harry Potter, Dreamgirls, and more). Her solo piano artistry has been featured on NPR, KCRW, BBC, and iHEART Radio and has won numerous awards. Starr has had her symphonic works premiered at Lincoln Center, received a gold record for her production and arrangement of the James Bond Theme, and is the first woman to have her compositions performed in the 87-year history of the Festival of Arts-Pageant of the Masters where she is currently a featured composer. A trailblazer onstage and in the studio, Starr served as the president of the Alliance for Women Film Composers from March 2019-March 2021, currently sits on the 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.

Lolita Ritmanis is an Emmy Award-winning, and 10 time Emmy Award-nominated composer. On February 9th, 2021 she was Oscar-shortlisted for the Academy Award for best original score for her 70 minute symphonic and choral score for the feature film Blizzard of Souls, which has already earned her the Hollywood Music in Media Award for best score for an international feature film, the Alex North Award for best score, and nominations for the Society of Composers and Lyricists Award as well as the World Soundtrack Award. On February 18th, 2020 she won the Golden Microphone Award for best instrumental album, and on November 15th, 2020 Lolita was awarded the Big Christopher (Latvia’s equivalent to the Academy Award) for Blizzard of Souls. Other recent career highlights include her original score for Christmas in Rome for Hallmark, documentary Wild Daze (featuring Jane Goodall), music for the gender parity series Flip the Script (starring Lake Bell), as well as continued work alongside her fellow Dynamic Music Partners, Michael McCuistion and Kristopher Carter on fan-favorite productions: Marvel Rising, Young Justice, Batman: The Killing Joke starring Mark Hamill.

Conductor and Producer Amy Andersson is the founder of Orchestra Moderne NYC, which made their triumphant debut at Carnegie Hall in 2017, and Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Center in 2019. Appearances on the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, CBS Morning News, CBS Evening News, and press coverage in the Wall Street Journal have led music critic Norman Lebrecht to call her “America’s most-watched Symphony Orchestra Conductor.”

Ms. Andersson has toured to over twenty-two countries conducting operatic, symphonic, Broadway musical, and video game repertoire and is recognized for her commitment to performing the works of living composers. She is writer and director of Women Warriors: The Voices of Change, teaches conducting to film and media scoring students at the Feirstein Graduate School of Cinema, and recently joined the faculty of the Hollywood Music Workshop, in Baden Austria. 

*** IMPORTANT – PLEASE READ ***

FREE for current SCL members (click HERE to check membership status).

Attendees will be emailed a Screening Link upon Registration and a Q&A YouTube Live Stream link on Monday, October 18, 10 minutes before Q&A start.

Attendees can ask questions on YouTube chat, and the SCL Host will pass them on to the Moderator. The SCL Member Code of Conduct applies to online Q&As.

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