Classically trained composer Stephanie Economou M.A. ’14 is part of a new generation of female film composers. She took a master class from Harry Gregson-Williams, the British-born composer responsible for Shrek and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, during a seminar at the school of music. He subsequently offered Economou a part-time job, then hired her full time after she graduated. Economou has contributed additional music to Gregson-Williams’s scores including for the Oscar-nominated The Martian, Live By Night, and The Equalizer 2. In November 2018, Economou helped record a 60-piece orchestra performing the score for the Disney Nature film Penguin. “There’s nothing like being in the room with musicians,” she says, “because they’re the ones who breathe life into the music. We do our best approximations on the computer, but when we stand on the podium and hear all the musicians express their musicality — that’s what makes it all worthwhile.”