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Composer Spotlight Series: Rachel Portman

POSTED: Mar. 08, 2022

Rachel Portman

b. 1960

Rachel Portman was born in Haslemere in Surrey, England and received her primary education at the exclusive Charterhouse School. She became interested in music at an early age, starting to compose by age 14. She then went on to study music at Worcester College, Oxford. This is where her involvement with scoring films began, as she composed for student films and theater productions. Notable among these early projects was the student film 鈥淧rivileged鈥 starring Hugh Grant, which went on to have a small theatrical release.

After college, Portman began her professional career writing music for BBC and Channel 4 films, among them Jim Henson鈥檚 鈥淪toryteller鈥 series. She continued her career writing scores for film and television, transitioning to Hollywood in 1992 with 鈥淯sed People.鈥 

In 1996, Portman broke barriers as the first female composer to win an Academy Award for 鈥淓mma鈥 in the Best Musical or Comedy Score category. Other nominees that year included 鈥淧ocahontas,鈥 scored by Alan Menken and Stephen Schwartz, Randy Newman鈥檚 score for 鈥淭oy Story鈥 and John Williams himself with 鈥淪abrina.鈥 She would go on to be nominated for two more Oscars, 鈥淭he Cider House Rules鈥 in 1999 and 鈥淐hocolat鈥 in 2000. 鈥淐hocolat鈥 was also nominated for a Golden Globe. In 2015, she won an Emmy Award for her score to HBO鈥檚 鈥淏essie.鈥

In addition to her prolific work for film and television, Portman has written a musical of 鈥淟ittle House on the Prairie,鈥 an opera adaptation of 鈥淭he Little Prince鈥 for the Houston Grand Opera, 鈥淭he Water Diviner鈥檚 Tale鈥 for the BBC Proms, and numerous other orchestral and choral works. She was appointed Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 2010, received the BMI Career Achievement Award in 2010, and is an honorary fellow of Worcester College, Oxford.

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Women's History Month

This month, we're celebrating with a Composer Spotlight Series dedicated to women in music. 

Written by Joseph Rush ('23)

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