Pinar Toprak

Pinar Toprak is a Turkish-American film music composer. She studied violin, voice, classical guitar, and composition at the Istanbul State Conservatory. In 1997, Pinar moved to Chicago and studied piano and jazz theory with many master jazz pianists. Later, she studied at Berklee College of Music and received a bachelor’s degree in film scoring. After moving to Los Angeles, she worked at Media Ventures under the composer Hans Zimmer. Her music scores have won two International Film Music Critics Association Awards: one in 2010 for the film The Lightkeepers and a second in 2011 for the documentary The Wind Gods. Her win for The Lightkeepers made her the first woman to win an IFMCA Award.

Born in: Istanbul, Turkey.