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Pinar Toprak

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Pinar Toprak
File:Pinar Toprak.jpg
Toprak in 2021
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-American composer for film, television and video games. She is most well-known for composing the score to the hit Marvel movie Captain Marvel (2019). She has won three International Film Music Critics Association Awards for The Lightkeepers (2009), The Wind Gods (2013), and The Tides of Fate (2018), as well as the fanfare of Skydance Media from 2010 to 2022.

Toprak was born and raised in Istanbul, Turkey, where she began her classical musical education at the age of five. After studying composition and multiple instruments at the conservatory she moved to Chicago to study jazz, before continuing on to Boston for a degree in film scoring from Berklee College of Music. She then moved to Los Angeles, earned a master's degree at California State University, Northridge in composition at age 22, and has quickly become an active and reinvigorating composer in Hollywood. She joined the music production company Media Ventures International (now known as Remote Control), home of film composer Hans Zimmer.

In addition to Captain Marvel, Toprak most recently scored, the Superman prequel series Krypton, the Pixar animated short Purl, the HBO documentary series McMillions, the DC series Stargirl, and the 2021 film The Lost City.

Early life

Toprak grew up in the "not-fancy part" of Istanbul, Turkey. Her father was an accountant but a lover of the arts. He played violin and starred in stage productions as a young man; when peers from his theater company became popular actors on local TV, he did their books. He nudged Toprak's interest in music and her love of movies. Pretending not to have his glasses handy, he would ask her to read the synopsis and cast for films listed in the newspaper's TV schedule. He also introduced her to American westerns and, crucially, Superman. She memorized the dialogue from the 1978 film starring Christopher Reeve, dubbed into Turkish—and she loved John Williams's score so much that she recorded the soaring, songlike music from the TV to her Walkman so she could listen to it anytime.[1][2]

"Encouraged by her father, Toprak enrolled in the local music conservatory when she was five. She began as a violinist but hated the instrument and switched to guitar."[1]

According to Toprak, she was always drawn to superheroes and comic books growing up. She often felt like the "weird kid out" growing up as a young girl in Turkey, and books gave her an escape to another world that was not her world at all.[3]

Toprak shared a small room with her brother, Jesse Toprak. Her mother, whom the composer characterizes as a quiet homemaker, was so inspired by her headstrong musical daughter that in her 40s, she took up the Turkish stringed oud, which she regularly plays in concerts today. Toprak found refuge in her piano. Music became "the way I was able to express all the things that I was feeling", she says. "I tell my kids that music was my best friend my whole life."[1]

She finished high school at 16, and after her 17th birthday she took the leap to the United States. "She lived with her brother in Wisconsin and taught herself English mostly through conversation, then completed a short ESL program before enrolling at Berklee. Soon after moving to the United States, she realized a career as a jazz guitarist wasn't in the cards and briefly switched to piano."[1]

Toprak graduated from Berklee at 19, thanks to testing out of several classes and taking general courses at a local college. She became a US citizen in 2015.[1]

Education

Toprak received her musical training in her hometown of Istanbul, while attending the Istanbul State Conservatory, the oldest conservatory in Turkey. During her studies there, she focused on composition and multi-instrumentalism.[4]

She then moved to the United States, where she went to Chicago and then to the Berklee College of Music in Boston to study jazz. At Berklee, she was initially a piano performance major, but then pursued film scoring. She received her Bachelor of Music in Film Scoring from Berklee in 2000 when she was 19 years old.[5][6][7]

After Berklee and following her move to Los Angeles, she attended and received her master's degree 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]

Later in her career, Toprak also instructed Berklee students in Film Scoring as a part of Berklee Online classes.[5]

Career

At the age of 20, Toprak got her first job, an internship at the Music Department of Paramount Pictures, where she attended scoring sessions almost every day.[8] In her own words, this was her first step towards reaching her goal of working for Hans Zimmer, since the experience at Paramount made her feel ready to reach out to him.[9] This method proved to be successful, as she ended up working for Hans Zimmer at his music production company, Media Ventures International (now Remote Control). As required by her job and based on her own interest, she trained herself in programming sample instruments.[6] She left Zimmer's company after a year as she was hired as the composer's assistant to the composer and orchestrator, William Ross.[6]

Her big break as a composer came in 2006 when she composed the score for the video game, Ninety-Nine Nights, when she was also pregnant with her first child.[9] After that, she landed another scoring project for the video game, Behind Enemy Lines 2. Since then, she has worked on more than 40 feature films and several video game and television projects, as well as the fanfare of Skydance Media from 2010 to 2022.[5] Among them was the romantic comedy, The Lightkeepers (2009), the score of which (by Toprak) was nominated and won the 2010 International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA) Award for Best Comedy Score.[9] Toprak's score for The Lightkeepers also made it to the 2011 Academy Award Shortlist for Best Original Score.[9] Following that, Toprak composed the music to the documentary film, The Wind Gods (2011) for which she received a second IFMCA award for Best Documentary Score in 2011.

Toprak was hired by director Dean Devlin, to compose the score for the 2017 film, Geostorm. While she invested a huge amount of time and money on writing an epic orchestral score for this project, she was laid off after the production companies, Warner Bros. and Skydance Media hired a new director for the movie's reshoots. Under more than $100,000 of debt, and simultaneously, working as a single mother after her divorce, Toprak refers to this period of her life and career as a testing and difficult time.[8]

Her resilience through these hardships came to fruition when her agent, Richard Kraft, contacted her regarding an opportunity to score the video game, Fortnite. In addition, composer Danny Elfman hired Toprak to write additional scores for the 2017 DC superhero movie, Justice League (Dir. Zack Snyder).[8]Prior to Captain Marvel, this was Toprak's gateway to large-scale superhero movies.[9]

Toprak received an opportunity to audition and pitch a main theme for the hit blockbuster film, Captain Marvel. Previously, she had already pitched a demo for the DC blockbuster movie, Wonder Woman (2017), but was not selected for the project.[9] After composing the main theme for Captain Marvel, Toprak hired and conducted a full 70-piece orchestra using her own funds in order to record the theme, while additionally sending a tape regarding her idea about the movie's score.[8][9] The risk of using her personal funds was worth it, as she composed the score for this hit Marvel superhero movie. Consequently, she made history as she became 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] and received a nomination for the 2019 World Soundtrack Awards.[10][11] Currently, Toprak is one of the few female composers who is working on major large-scale productions.[8]

Toprak's other notable works include the score to the 2018-2019 series, Krypton, the prequel to the well-known Superman series; DC's recent superhero 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.[12] She is the first Turkish composer to be nominated for the Emmys.[13]

In addition, Toprak's 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 contrast to her orchestral and electronic works, Toprak's score in the 2018 Pixar animated short film, Purl (Dir. Kristen Lester) shows elements of her jazz studies and composition.[14]

Toprak's other scoring credits include the music for Christina Aguilera's 2019 Las Vegas show, Xperience, and the main theme for Walt Disney World's Epcot theme park.[4]

Toprak is a voting member at the World Soundtrack Academy along with composers such as Carter Burwell, Hildur Guðnadóttir, and fellow Berklee graduates, Alan Silvestri, and Ramin Djawadi.[15]

Personal life

Toprak married Thanos Kazakos at age 22, a music synthesis and sound design major she had met at Berklee. "In interviews, she notes the irony, obvious to anyone familiar with the Marvel universe's top villain: 'Nobody could make up Captain Marvel composer married to Thanos.' "[1] The couple divorced in 2013.[1]

Toprak is currently raising two children as a single mother while working as a full time composer. She recently "came out" as a mother on her social media after keeping this part of her personal life private for nearly 15 years both out of respect for her children and because of "the hypocrisy of motherhood in the industry".[3] In an interview, after retelling the story of her rushing from the hospital after giving birth to conduct an orchestra with a 30-hour old infant, she explained: "You were trying to remove any possible reasons why somebody might not hire you, whether that might be a valid reason or not", she says. "I knew very well that I was perfectly capable of delivering what I needed to deliver."[1]

On Instagram, she has referred to her two sons as "the best compositions of her life".[16]

Toprak currently resides in Los Angeles, and when not composing loves to sail the Pacific Coast.[4]

Discography

Key
† Denotes films that have not yet been released

Film

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 Animation 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[17] 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 Short film
Captain Marvel[18] 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[19] Zach Parrish Short film
2022 The Lost City Aaron Nee
Adam Nee
Slumberland Francis Lawrence
TBA Shotgun Wedding † Jason Moore

Television

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–present Stargirl[20] 13 episodes
2020 McMillions 6 episodes

Video games

Year Title Notes
2006 Ninety-Nine Nights With Takayuki Nakamura
2017 Fortnite Additional music

Other work

Awards and nominations

Year Recipient Award[4][12][11][13][23][24] 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 Primetime Emmy Awards Outstanding Music Composition for a Documentary Series or Special Nominated

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h Greiving, Tim (27 October 2020). "The Billion-Dollar Composer". Alta Online. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  2. ^ Guerrasio, Jason. "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 12 December 2020.
  3. ^ a b https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kbYcW3Bdypw. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  4. ^ a b c d e "About". Pinar Toprak. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  5. ^ a b c d Boston, 150 Massachusetts Avenue; Maps, MA 02115 United States See map: Google. "Composer Pinar Toprak Cracks Celluloid Ceiling with Captain Marvel | Berklee College of Music". www.berklee.edu. Retrieved 11 December 2020. {{cite web}}: |first2= has generic name (help)CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  6. ^ a b c d e "Breaking a Sound Barrier with Captain Marvel | Berklee College of Music". www.berklee.edu. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  7. ^ "Interview with Pinar Toprak – Fade to Her". www.fadetoher.com. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  8. ^ a b c d e Greiving, Tim (27 October 2020). "The Billion-Dollar Composer". Alta Online. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  9. ^ a b c d e f g "Pinar Toprak: Super Scores". headlinermagazine.net. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  10. ^ Awards, World Soundtrack. "Second Wave of Nominees 19th World Soundtrack Awards Revealed". World Soundtrack Awards. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  11. ^ a b "20 ASCAP Screen Music Greats Nominated for World Soundtrack Awards". www.ascap.com. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  12. ^ a b "Pinar Toprak". IMDb. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  13. ^ a b "Pınar Toprak becomes first Turkish composer nominee for Emmys". Hürriyet Daily News. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  14. ^ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6uuIHpFkuo. {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  15. ^ Awards, World Soundtrack. "World Soundtrack Academy voting members". World Soundtrack Awards. Retrieved 11 December 2020.
  16. ^ "Login • Instagram". www.instagram.com. Retrieved 11 December 2020. {{cite web}}: Cite uses generic title (help)
  17. ^ "Pinar Toprak". IMDb. Retrieved 10 November 2017.
  18. ^ "'Captain Marvel' Enlists Pinar Toprak as Composer". The Hollywood Reporter. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 14 June 2018.
  19. ^ "Pinar Toprak Scoring Zach Parrish's Disney Animated Short 'Us Again'". Film Music Reporter. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  20. ^ "Season 2 Episode 11 | Pinar Toprak took a pivotal trip to Tower Records". SCORE: A FILM MUSIC DOCUMENTARY. 25 June 2019. Retrieved 26 June 2019.
  21. ^ "Home Page – Pinar Toprak". pinartoprak.com. Archived from the original on 1 June 2019. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  22. ^ "I've had the incredible honor to write the opening for Christina Aguilera's (...)". Facebook. Retrieved 14 June 2019.
  23. ^ "Pinar Toprak". Television Academy. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
  24. ^ "Pinar Toprak receives her IFMCA Award for The Lightkeepers". IFMCA: International Film Music Critics Association. 2 March 2011. Retrieved 12 December 2020.
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