The number of women cited in the music categories of this year’s Emmy Awards was nearly 27 percent—the highest percentage in the history of the Emmy awards competition. The category for music composition for an anthology or limited series, special, or movie, was dominated by women, who scored three of the five nominated shows. Adjunct faculty member Ariel Marx, who scored the series A Small Light was one of the recipients of the coveted award.
- Variety interviewed Marx on 8/10/23:
“Marx, whose miniseries A Small Light was among the most acclaimed shows of the year,” adds, “There is more support and encouragement for women to helm these bigger projects. That’s an indication that studios, creatives and executives are more willing to give women these big jobs.”
- Gold Derby interviewed Marx on 8/11/23
On her scoring, Ariel notes the musical “experimentation throughout the show” with her well known use of “extended techniques on the strings, and other twisted sounds for some of the tense moments” and the duality in their intention on wanting to “make the score feel contemporary”, so you are “able to see yourself in her (Miep Gies, Bel Powley) and everyone in the story”.
As a student in the Screen Scoring Program at NYU, Ariel was a recipient of the endowed “Women in Film Music” scholarship. The award, funded by the Sorel Charitable Organization, has facilitated the careers of numerous women in music, including rising star alums Jesse Montgomery and Herdis Stefansdóttir.
Learn how Ariel Marx uses Non-Traditional Methods for Scoring A Small Light
