SoundWorks Collection Interview Series - Composer Penka Kouneva

This week we spoke with Composer Penka Kouneva at this years Game Developers Conference in San Francisco.

Penka started her career working alongside Composer Steve Jablonsky, where she composed additional score for game titles such including Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen. Penka’s music, which has been called “haunting and passionate,” is a blend of her Eastern European heritage, classical training and media scoring.

Penka has also worked as an orchestrator and composer on titles grossing $15 billion worldwide: films - Matrix, Transformers, Pirates, Elysium, Ender’s Game; and video games such as World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Gears of War 2 & 3, Sims 3, Diablo III, Need for Speed, and Dragon Age II.

ABOUT PENKA KOUNEVA:

Composer Penka Kouneva enjoys a reputation as a unique talent. Working alongside Steve Jablonsky, she composed the score for Prince of Persia: Forgotten Sands and Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen video games, and has scored many indie features (Midnight Movie) and television shows (SyFy channel telefilms, Forensic Files). Her music, called “haunting and passionate,” is a blend of her Eastern European heritage, classical training and media scoring. These days, her passion is on scoring video games: the award-winning Rollers of the Realm (PS4), Intense Life, H-Hour: World’s Elite (Steam), Iron Kill, Hades. In 1999 Penka arrived in Los Angeles with one contact, small savings and a great passion for media music. In the following decade she worked as an orchestrator and composer on titles grossing $15 billion worldwide: films - Matrix, Transformers, Pirates, Elysium, Ender’s Game; and games - World of Warcraft, StarCraft II, Gears of War 2 & 3, Sims 3, Diablo III, Need for Speed, Dragon Age II. Her composition awards include the Sundance Composer Fellowship, two Ovation Awards, a Copland Award, a Hollywood Music in Media Award, a Square Enix Music Online nomination, an Independent Music Award, and others.

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