Pinar Toprak recently scored 'Captain Marvel,' a billion-dollar blockbuster film.
Pinar Toprak is shattering the glass ceiling for female composers. Having already scored the popular Fortnite video game, she recently achieved her greatest accomplishment yet: Creating the score for Marvel Studios’ Captain Marvel. This makes her the first woman ever to score a billion-dollar blockbuster film.
Recently, Toprak showed off an expanded skillset as the producer of the film The Walk, which features Justin Chatwin and Malcolm McDowell. In August, her theme tune for Amazon Prime’s Thursday Night Football will debut, making her the first woman ever to compose an original theme for an NFL media package.
Toprak almost gave up her dream of becoming a composer due to lack of support.
The odds were against Turkish-born Toprak at every step along her journey to becoming an industry-leading film composer. As a young girl, she was fascinated by the power of music in films. “I was mesmerized by the legendary John Williams and Ennio Morricone for their craftsmanship.” She determined that she wanted to do what they did. But she faced discouragement from chasing her bold ambitions. Toprak says, “Especially growing up in the ‘90s in Istanbul, Turkey – it wasn't a very common thing for a Turkish woman to say, ‘I want to be a film composer.’”
Feeling the lack of support, when she applied to Berklee College of Music it was as a piano major and not for a degree in film scoring. Yet that changed after only a month of classes at the prestigious institution. Toprak had what she calls a “beautiful serendipitous moment.” She realized that she’d rather fail doing something she loves than succeed doing something others expected her to do.
Toprak forged head with her dreams, working with Hans Zimmer while in her 20s.
Her first break was an internship at Paramount Pictures when she was just 20. This helped Toprak land her dream job of working with Hans Zimmer at what was then known as Media Ventures International. Over the next few years, she continued to hone her trade and take on larger projects.
To this day, Toprak is motivated by a true passion for what she does. She says, “For me, doing something that actually fulfills me intellectually, spiritually, and emotionally is the reward. Every day I wake up grateful that this is what I get to do.”
To win the Captain Marvel score, Toprak hired an orchestra herself.
The greatest challenge Toprak has faced in her career has been proving her capabilities as a female composer to others. She has overcome this by exhibiting a willingness to play the long game. For Captain Marvel, she invested her own money into hiring a 70-piece orchestra, in order to show the studio that she could handle composing and executing a score of that magnitude. She fully expects to continue making decisions like this to achieve her ever-expanding goals.
Toprak is living her life purpose despite the obstacles in her way, and she wants other people to believe in themselves like she did. She shares, “The biggest thing that a young person can do for themselves is figuring out what lights them up. What is something you do that makes you feel like you get lost in it and lose track of time? What feels fulfilling? Once you know this, you can increase your odds of success by focusing on one obstacle at a time.”
