Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

rst couple of years were especially impactful and moving for everyone. When we came to Ravinia, and there were posters of women conductors from the past, that was pretty monumental. And doing the year of women composers I thought was really impactful as well. “I’ve enjoyed every year in very di erent ways,” she said “Last year with female chefs was fantastic. It was so interesting because it’s all about creativity and having license, giving agency to women to pursue their dreams. ese are issues that are front-and-center and quite rele- vant, sadly, still today.” is season’s focus on women writing for the screen grew out of Alsop’s friendship with Laura Karp- man, whose music for lm, televi- sion, and video games has earned her ve Emmys and an Academy Award nomination. “We studied together at Juil- liard,” said Alsop. “She studied with [composer] Milton Babbitt, so she’s a very serious composer who ended up going into the lm world. We were talking, and I said I’d love to do a project bringing together women composers and lm, be- cause I don’t think people have any awareness of how challenging that profession is for women. She fell in love with the idea, so she’s co-curat- ing it with me.” Something more general moti- vated Alsop as well. Young musi- cians, she’s found, are especially connected to John Williams, whose music for such blockbuster lms as Jaws , Star Wars , and E.T. , as well as multiple Olympic Games, are famil- iar the world over. e July – concert, public discussion, and workshop will explore how lm, TV, and video game composers build that connection between audience and story. “Whenever I speak to young composers,” said Alsop. “I would say that percent of them say their biggest in uence was John Williams. at’s the music they were exposed to as kids. Composer LauraKarpman IsBuildingaTable forWomen inHer Field, OneNoteat aTime WHEN LAURA KARPMAN FOUNDED e Alliance for Women Film Composers in , her rst move was “radical,” she recalls. “We created a directory,” the Oscar-nominated, Emmy-winning composer shares. “And the reason why it was radical is because people thought we didn’t even exist.” For Karpman, it has always been paramount to show her peers that female com- posers “are here, we have been here, we’re capable and prepared,” she says. “And now I’m so glad the rest of the world is seeing that.” In co-curating the h annual Breaking Barriers Festival with Marin Alsop, Karp- man helps shine an even brighter light on women in lm scoring, an ever-growing group less celebrated than their male counterparts. at gap is noticeable even in some of the Breaking Barriers programming; with works by John Williams and Leonard Bernstein, it’s evident that when re ecting on the history of lm, there aren’t many female composers to look to. “And that’s the whole point of the program,” Karpman continues about the wide-ranging concert. Particularly in “ e Female Lens” Suite, Karpman and Alsop explore the “diverse voices of women composers who are active today creating spectacular, award-winning music,” Karpman explains. e rst half of the program ends with two songs from the Star Wars universe, including Natalie Holt’s “Hanging Out” from Obi- Wan Kenobi, notable as Holt was the rst woman ever hired to score for the franchise. “Entering the worlds of Star Wars or Marvel has been absolutely closed o for women, but now it’s opening, with peo- ple like Natalie, with me,” adds Karp- man, who has scored several Marvel projects. “But that’s still brand-new.” e second half of the program includes Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Suite from ‘On the Waterfront,’ which Karpman, an admirer of the late composer’s work, calls “an absolutely textbook example of how to brilliantly score for lm.” And her own work, the Ravinia commission Unsung: A Symphonic Suite for the Superhero Women of Classic Hollywood , honors female characters in lm who never had themes. “Women were always the sidekicks, the love interest, the secondary characters,” she explains of th century movies. “So that means all the hero themes always got assigned to the men, and the women, if they were lucky, maybe got a nice love theme.” For Karpman, writing by women for women “shows we have a point of view,” she says. “And that point of view is starting to come into focus with women directors hav- ing a bit more of an opportunity, and requesting that type of composition. And that is really signi cant.” Karpman hopes that Breaking Barriers attendees walk away knowing that female composers are adding seats to a growing table, not taking existing spots away. “ ere’s room for us,” she says. “Any kind of diverse voices can only enrich a con- versation, not diminish it. It helps make us all deeper and more empathetic.” Laura Karpman RAVINIAMAGAZINE • JULY 20 – AUGUST 2 , 2026 12