Faculty

Lolita Ritmanis is a Grammy, Emmy and SCL Award-winning member of the international film music community. With a passion for collaborating with visionary voices, Ritmanis has filled her resume with a wide variety of projects. Her work includes composing the Oscar-shortlisted 70-minute symphonic score for Blizzard of Souls, as well as music for Babylon 5: The Road Home (Warner Bros.), Young Justice: Phantoms (HBO Max), and numerous television shows, musical theatre productions, independent films, video games, documentaries, and concert works.

Her music has been performed throughout the world at prestigious venues such as Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center and Carnegie Hall. Ritmanis is one of the founders of the Alliance for Women Film Composers, having served as the president from 2016-2018, as well as one of the producers of the 2021 Grammy Award-winning album, Women Warriors: The Voices of Change. In 2025, she reunited with director Dzintars Dreibergs to score the feature film, Escape Net, and celebrated the release of Daniel Kreizberg’s film, Tahlequah the Whale: A Dance of Grief, which features music by Ritmanis. Her score for the feature film An American Miracle, which premiered in July 2025, includes 109 performers: symphony orchestra, choir and soloists.  On February 9, 2024, she attended the premiere of her piano trio “Vignettes from the Park” at Carnegie Hall. Ritmanis is currently working on an array of media projects and concert commissions.

Ritmanis is on the faculty of the Screen Scoring program at USC Thornton School of Music, in addition to presenting masterclasses and concerts throughout the world at festivals and universities. She serves on the executive music committee of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences as well as on the board of the Society of Composers and Lyricists. She is a member of the Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Recording Musicians Association, American Federation of Musicians Local 47, Women in Film, Women in Animation, Women in Media and ASIFA.