5 minute read
PENKA KOUNEVA
A DISCUSSION WITH PENKA KOUNEVA
Penka Kouneva is a Hollywood composer whose music has been called “fantastic” (Billboard) and “breathtaking” (NPR). Her credits include Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and League of Legends, a Harry Potter VR immersive experience, a $30M multimedia exhibit Heroes and Legends at the Kennedy Space Center, numerous mobile games including Rollers of the Realm (Phantom Compass), Cookie Jam 2 (Jam City), ElemenTerra VR game (Freeform Labs) and Mayhem (Chobolabs); and the CW episodic TV series Pandora co-scored with Joe Kraemer. Penka’s film scores include the features Devil’s Whisper, Encounter (Sony Pictures), Aga (the 2020 Oscar contender in Foreign Languages) and the award-winning documentary Zero Gravity. Penka’s composer awards include: Sundance Fellowship, Distinguished Duke Alumna, and the Recognition Award from Game Audio Network Guild. In 2019 Penka was commissioned by Los Angeles Philharmonic for the concert America In Space at the Hollywood Bowl and in January 2020, Penka scored Olay’s Super Bowl TV commercial campaign “Make Space For Women.”
G.A.N.G. Staff (GS): You’ve worked on many projects over the years from indie games to AAA games. Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and what led you to a career creating audio content for games?
PENKA: I arrived in Los Angeles in 2000 driven by a passion to work on visual media and to tell stories. My background is classical and eclectic, which opened the biggest door – orchestrating for Steve Jablonsky. In 2008, he gave me a break scoring video games by plugging me to co-compose Transformers and Prince of Persia.
GS: You got your start in the game industry as an orchestrator for Steve Jablonsky on the Gears of War franchise. Please share how your career has evolved since then?
PENKA: From that point on, I immersed myself in gameplay, and also in composing, learning, orchestrating, and meeting game developers. Friends hired me to score their mobile and PC games. VR is an exciting field and I started scoring immersive VR experiences. My biggest jobs in that field are a NASA theme park Heroes and Legends, and more recently, a Harry Potter immersive experience (which I co-composed with Reuven Herman during the lockdown). My artist album The Woman Astronaut inspired various creative people to hire me (Joe Kraemer invited me to co-score Pandora, a SciFi episodic series on the CW network; director Paul Salamoff invited me to score his SciFi drama feature film Encounter that Sony released). Through my leadership and friendships in the game biz I scored four mobile games
COMPOSING FOR GAMES, TV, SPACE with a studio in Seattle – Meow Match, Survival Z, Aqua Blast and DragonStrike. These were stylistically diverse, fun and musically inspiring collaborations. Two of these games happened in year 2020; they have a special place in my heart for helping me survive 2020. In the 2010’s friends whom I met at GDC or at various international game conferences hired me to score iOS games (Rollers of the Realm, etc)
GS: What are some of the positive changes you’ve seen in the game industry over the past 15 years?
PENKA: More diverse stories and genres, amazing immersive experiences, stunning masterful music. I’m honored to orchestrate for Neal Acree and Adam Burgess on a few Blizzard franchises. To my ears and soul, these massive scores are modern music at its very best. I’ve also witnessed genuine efforts to seek out and champion diverse voices, and in that regard Brian Schmidt’s sustained and proactive efforts (via the GANG scholarships, Game Sound Con and more) are unparalleled. But let me also speak about the one aspect that is everlasting. In all creative industries, having a community of friends is the only way we get referred to meaningful scoring jobs that propel us upwards. I’ve been cultivating relationships proactively and generously for two decades; recently I’ve been seeing the fruits of my efforts. Every job that pushed me forward (and also had a solid budget) had come to me via referrals - via my community of friends and supporters.
GS: You produced a concert at the Hollywood Bowl, then scored your first season of Pandora for The CW Network last year, and you also have scored a multimedia exhibit about the American astronauts at the Kennedy Space Center. Did you seek out these diverse projects intentionally, or did it happen organically?
PENKA: Becoming a game composer was the most important pursuit – not only I became a better composer, but I also connected with great people. Scoring the NASA exhibit at the Kennedy Space Center came from my friendship with a game audio colleague, Jesse James Allen who referred me for consideration. The idea of a concert celebrating the astronauts with excerpts from Hollywood space movies came to my mind after I co-produced a sold-out orchestral concert of video game music in my hometown, Sofia, Bulgaria. The concert celebrated orchestral video game scores as the heirs of the classical symphonic tradition. Later, composer Joe Kraemer invited me to co-score Pandora because he had heard my orchestral album The Woman Astronaut. Yes, in our biz everything happens very organically. Like a flower growing in a garden that you have cultivated and watered for decades. GS: You’re very involved in the industry as a board member of GDC and an advisory board member of G.A.N.G. You also make time to mentor others. How do you balance your service to our industry with your demanding work schedule?
PENKA: I am an immigrant from Bulgaria who came to the US 31 years ago with 150 bucks in my pocket and no relatives. Many people opened life-changing doors for me – my Duke University mentor composer Stephen Jaffe, orchestrator Bruce Fowler, Steve Jablonsky, my brilliant mentor and manager Victor Rodriguez. It’s a sacred duty and honor to give back to the community that has lifted me and supported me so generously. Over the years, I’ve collected tons of resources, handouts, blogs which I generously share, but my most important message is to encourage young composers to pursue their dreams.
GS: What’s next for you?
PENKA: A big unannounced title in the spring of 2022. Recently, a feature documentary Zero Gravity got awards and festival buzz – the soundtrack will be coming out soon. If you a Grammy voter, please consider Amy Andersson’s WOMEN WARRIORS in “Classical Compendium” – I have 7 tracks on it. And I’m always visualizing receiving new scoring projects!
GS: It’s been a pleasure talking with you, and we appreciate all of your contributions to our community!
