The soundtrack for the game 'Awesomenauts' sounds like an alien radio station. The music was created by a group of composers who call themselves SonicPicnic.


Top Score: SonicPicnic and Awesomenauts

Composer Ryan Ike got his first big break in video-game composition by answering an open call for composers on Twitter for a game called 'Gunpoint'. He got the job -- and a BAFTA nomination. Hear more about Ryan Ike on this week's episode of Top Score.


Composer Ryan Ike got his career started at 'Gunpoint'

Millions of people around the world play the 'casual' game Candy Crush Soda Saga, but composer Johan Holmstrom took the music very seriously, even recruiting the London Symphony Orchestra for the recording session. Holmstrom is Emily Reese's guest on this week's Top Score.


Serious music for a casual game

'Gender equity' isn't the first thing that jumps to mind when thinking of movie soundtracks. It's time to change that. On this week's Learning to Listen, Emily Reese spotlights five female composers making a splash across the media spectrum.


Famous Five: Women composers in media

Miriam and Laura began the Alliance for Women Film Composers together. Miriam is well-known for her work in documentaries. How did she end up doing that? She has a great story, including a job singing telegrams. Hear it here.


Learning to Listen: Miriam Cutler

Lili is also a Jill-of-all-trades, having initially gotten into scoring due to her successful solo recordings. In addition to being a fantastic violinist, Lili sings and scores. Hear her incredible journey to recovery thanks to Mendelssohn in the audio.


Learning to Listen: Lili Haydn

Laura trained at Juilliard and was an apprentice of Milton Babbitt for years. She's scored swaths of critically acclaimed music for stage, film, video games, all the major television networks, and nearly any other form of media you can imagine. Her most recent project is 'Ask Your Mama', a piece based on poetry of the same name by Langston Hughes.


Learning to Listen: Laura Karpman

Lolita, like Miriam, carved herself a niche. Not documentaries, but superhero animated stories. She wrote the wildly popular theme to 'Justice League', and won Emmys for her work on 'Batman Beyond'. Hear her discuss her Latvian heritage and her work in that country in the audio.


Learning to Listen: Lolita Ritmanis

Kathryn tosses her hat into many rings. She regularly performs live, she's a singer/songwriter, and scores films. She worked with August Wilson in the early '00s on 'Gem of the Ocean', and scored the PBS documentary on August Wilson's life, 'The Ground on Which I Stand'.


Learning to Listen: Kathryn Bostic

Ryan Thompson is a PhD candidate in musicology at the University of Minnesota, with a special interest in ludomusicology. What is that, you ask? Ludomusicology is a growing field in which musicologists study the impact of music in video games.


Emily Reese

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