#WomanCrushWednesday 6/22

If you’re a fan of Superman or Batman, you’re going to really enjoy this week’s #womancrushwednesday! This week we celebrate the life of Ms. Shirley Walker! Ms. Walker was an American film and television conductor and composer. She was a pioneer for women in the film industry, as she was one of the first composers to attain a solo score credit on a major Hollywood film,  John Carpenter‘s Memoirs of an Invisible Man. Walker’s work is perhaps most recognizable to most superhero fans, as she collaborated frequently with composer Danny Elfman. Walker is credited with conducting the main theme of the 1989 Batman film, as well as composing for Batman: The Animated Series (1992–1995), Superman: The Animated Series (1996–2000), The New Batman Adventures (1997–1999), and Batman Beyond (1999–2001). Perhaps most impressively, is that Walker wrote her film scores entirely by hand, and she always orchestrated and conducted her own scores by herself. However, Walker’s scores and compositions were not just limited to the superhero world. Her credits include playing the synthesizers on Carmine Coppola‘s score for Apocalypse Now, collaborating with John Carpenter on the score for the film Escape From L.A., conductor for the main theme of the film Scrooged, and composer for films such as Willard, the first three Final Destination movies, and television series such as Falcon Crest, Space: Above and Beyond, China Beach, and the 1990 show The Flash. Sadly, Ms. Walker passed in 2006. At the time of her death, Walker had scored more major-studio motion pictures than any other American woman. Her legacy in film and television inspired the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers to create the Shirley Walker Award in her honor in 2014. To learn more about Ms. Shirley Walker, click the link here to explore her entire filmography, or click here to learn more from her official website. And, if you have a bit of extra time on your hands, check out the video below detailing her score for an episode of Batman: The Animated Series.