Cathryn Bell: From Actor to Film Composer

On today’s episode, I’m joined by the wonderful multi-instrumentalist, producer, and composer Cathryn Bell. We talk about her journey as a composer and how she found her way into writing for the screen, as well as her favourite film scores and her creative process. We also dive into the lack of women in film composition and explore what can be done to better support and champion the next generation of women composers.Cathryn Bell: Website: https://www.cathrynbell.comInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/cathrynbellofficial?igsh=MXE0Y2tqdnloc3Nwcw==Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@composer_storyteller?_r=1&_t=ZN-949sMoN8sBaSpotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2ebo7AaKAjsW21wTpzYb8h?si=vpwe5NfwRsSYAFddNSguiQApple Music: https://music.apple.com/gb/artist/cathryn-bell/1645537539The Lemon Cake Society: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Wb95lvlTyM00:00 - Introduction 00:57 - Start of a Musical Journey 1:49 - Childhood Films that Inspired Her 3:18 - The Music She Listened to Growing Up4:56 - Learning the Viola 5:36 - First Memories Writing Music 6:34 - A snippet of Cathryns first composition 7:55 - The Inspiration behind the piece 8:56 - Always putting story with music 9:09 - Compositional Journey 9:28 - Lack of Composer Role Models that were Women 10:32 - Training as An Actor 12:02 What being an actor taught her about writing music 13:00 - Where do the compositions start? 14:05 - What does the first few moments of writing a piece look like? 16:00 - How to decide what instrument a piece needs 16:39 - Life as a Film Composer 17:06 - How she got started writing for the screen 21:56 - A snippet from The Lemon Cake Society Score 23:30 - Making the Score for the Lemon Cake Society 26:24 - Collaboration 31:35 - From the Vault Film Scores? 32:12 - What you wish more directors knew about writing film music34:36 - Where are all the women in film music? 34:59 - Have you been the only women in the room? 37:47 - What can we do to help women in film music? 41:21 - Advice for the next generation of women in music 43:17 - Favourite piece written by a woman 45:14 - Links to Social Media and Where to Find Her Work ✨New Episodes Every Monday✨Let’s Get Social 📱For more Classical Queens, follow us on: Video Podcast: https://www.youtube.com/@ChordsandQueensTikTok: ⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@chordsandqueens⁠Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/chordsandqueens?igsh=eGlkYWgyN3hmMnhm&utm_source=qr⁠ Substack: https://substack.com/@chordsqueens