Rachel Portman facts for kids

Rachel Mary Berkeley Portman (born 11 December 1960) is a British composer. She made history in 1996 by becoming the first woman to win an Oscar for Best Original Score. She won for her music in the movie Emma.

Rachel Portman was also nominated for two more Oscars. These were for the soundtracks of The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000). In 2010, she received the Order of the British Empire (OBE). This is a special award from the British King or Queen. She is also an honorary member of Worcester College, Oxford. She has written over 100 musical scores for films, TV shows, and plays. She has also worked with the BBC on projects like an opera based on The Little Prince. She also created a big musical piece for a choir and orchestra called The Water Diviner.

Rachel Portman is known for her natural talent in understanding a film's story. She can also show the feelings of a film through her music. She often chooses to work on "human-size stories." These are movies about real people and their feelings. This is special in today's big movie world.

Early Life and Learning

Rachel Portman was born in Haslemere, Surrey, England. Her parents were Sheila Margaret Penelope and Berkeley Charles Berkeley Portman. She went to Charterhouse. She became interested in music at a young age. She started writing her own music when she was 14.

Starting Her Music Journey

Rachel Portman studied Music at Worcester College, Oxford. She also studied how to compose music with Roger Steptoe. It was here that she became interested in writing music for films. She started by creating music for student films and plays. She wrote music for Oxford Playhouse shows. She also made the soundtrack for a student film called Privileged. This film was later sold to the BBC.

Her first professional music job was for the 1982 film Experience Preferred... But Not Essential. Later, she began writing music for BBC and Channel 4 TV shows and movies. These included Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, Four Days in July by Mike Leigh, and The Storyteller by Jim Henson.

Her Amazing Career

Since 1992, Rachel Portman has been in high demand for Hollywood movies. She is one of the few women composers who have been very successful at this level. When asked about inspiring other women composers, she said: "I really haven’t ever thought of myself as a female composer, but rather as a composer. It never occurred to me I was one of the only women composers in film when I started out. There is still a huge imbalance in the industry when there are many, many greatly talented women composers of film music around now. I hope it becomes more and more the norm to see women credited as composers in film and TV in the future."

Beyond Film: Stage and Concerts

Rachel Portman has also written music for concerts and stage shows. This includes a musical version of Little House on the Prairie. In 2003, her opera The Little Prince was first performed. It was based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's famous book. This opera is special because it's for both children and adults. It has clear singing parts for a boy soprano and lively children's choirs.

She also created The Water Diviner's Tale (2007). This was a big musical piece for a choir and orchestra. It was inspired by climate change and performed at the BBC Proms. In 2012, she wrote Endangered. This was an orchestral piece for a concert about World Environment Day in Beijing, China.

In 2019, Portman wrote Earth Song for the BBC Singers. The words were by poet Nick Drake and Greta Thunberg. She also composed the music for the BBC1 Christmas special Mimi and the Mountain Dragon in 2019.

In 2020, Rachel Portman released a solo piano album called Ask The River. It has her own pieces for piano, violin, and cello. She played the piano herself. In 2023, she released another album, Beyond the Screen – Film Works on Piano. This album features some of her most loved film music for solo piano.

Awards and Special Honors

Rachel Portman received the Anthony Asquith Award for her music in The Storyteller.

In 1996, she became the first woman composer to win an Academy Award. She won it for the music in Emma. She was also the first woman composer to win a Primetime Emmy Award. She received this for the film Bessie (2015). She was nominated for two more Oscars for The Cider House Rules (1999) and Chocolat (2000). Chocolat also earned her a Golden Globe Nomination.

Her film music uses many different styles. However, she is best known for clear, string-heavy sounds. She often adds beautiful woodwind melodies. She usually arranges her own music. She also works closely with orchestrator Jeff Atmajian. While she became famous for romantic comedies, she has also written music for serious dramas and thrillers. An example is The Cider House Rules.

On 19 May 2010, she received the Richard Kirk Award for her work in film and TV music. She was the first woman to get this award.

Rachel Portman was made an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2010. She is also an honorary Fellow of Worcester College, Oxford and a Fellow of the Royal College of Music.

In 2015, Portman won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Miniseries, Movie, or a Special for her work on Bessie. In 2022, she received the Career Achievement Award at the Zurich Film Festival.

Her music for the CNN film Julia won an Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition in 2022.

How She Creates Music

Rachel Portman has explained how she writes music for films. She starts when most of the film is almost finished. She then tries to understand the "world" of the film. This helps her decide what kind of music will fit. She watches each scene many times to understand the film's speed and how long each scene is. For her, composing is very natural and comes from her feelings.

Rachel Portman believes that melodies (tunes) are the most important part of any music score. In her soundtracks, she builds her music around one main musical idea. She says: "Whenever I’m starting a film, if it’s gonna need a melody, I’ve got to crack that melody. And that becomes the thing on which to hang the whole score, from which you take everything else. All other branches come off it. So that was the first thing I wrote … To start and end with it, and to touch on it as you go through the film. It’s like the musical voice of the film, the main musical voice".

Portman also says that "the purpose of a film score is to illuminate the story." This means the music should help tell the story. She carefully chooses which instruments to use because "instruments have colour." For example, she likes the clarinet because it can sound both happy and sad. She believes great music can stand on its own, even without the film. She also thinks originality is important.

Famous Works

Rachel Portman's compositions include the music for many well-known films. Some of these are The Manchurian Candidate (Jonathan Demme), Oliver Twist (Roman Polanski), Hart's War (Gregory Hoblit), The Legend of Bagger Vance (Robert Redford), Beloved (Jonathan Demme), Benny and Joon (Jeremiah Chechik), Life Is Sweet (Mike Leigh), Never Let Me Go (Mark Romanek), Grey Gardens (Michael Sucsy), The Duchess (Saul Dibb), One Day (Lone Scherfig), The Vow (Michael Sucsy), Snow Flower and the Secret Fan (Wayne Wang), The Lake House (Alejandro Agresti), Infamous (Douglas McGrath), Mona Lisa Smile (Mike Newell), and The Human Stain (Robert Benton).

She also wrote a children's opera, The Little Prince. This was later made into a TV show. Another work is Little House on the Prairie, a musical based on the books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

See also

In Spanish: Rachel Portman para niños