Today marks the birthday of film composer, orchestrator, and conductor Shirley Walker (1945-2006).  Walker was an important trailblazer in Hollywood becoming one of the first women to conduct film music and to compose music for film.  She worked with Danny Elfman early in his career, conducting the score for his Batman (1989).  She would go on to composer scores for the animated DC Comics featuring Batman, and also wrote music for the television series The Flash (1990).  In 1992, she wrote the score for the uneven John Carpenter film Memoirs of an Invisible Man (the book is actually pretty good).  The score like many of her earlier works was in a style similar to that of Elfman's.

In 1995 she was involved with the short-lived sci-fi series Space: Above and Beyond (including a great main theme) for which she was nominated for an Emmy.  (There are striking similarities between this theme and a theme Howard Shore wrote for The Aviator unintentionally sounding alike.)  Walker worked on all three Final Destination films and for the same film makers wrote her final film score Black Christmas.  A personal favorite is her amazing score for the remake of Willard (2003).  Walker was a well-respected member of the film music community and it was a real shock when she died last fall.

More of her music can be appreciated at her website:  http://walker.filmmusic.com/.

Sadly, recordings of her own music are either out of print or available in specialty on-line stores such as www.screenarchives.com or www.intrada.com.