Faculty

Lolita Ritmanis is a 2022 GRAMMY Award-winning music producer of Women Warriors: The Voices of Change. She is an Emmy Award-winning composer, having been nominated 10 times, and winning the coveted statue in 2002 for her work on the Warner Bros. series Batman Beyond. She is one of the founders of the Alliance for Women Film Composers (serving as president from 2016-2018,) and a founding member of Dynamic Music Partners. A member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Class of 2021, Lolita was Oscar shortlisted for her 70-minute symphonic and choral score for the feature film Blizzard of Souls, which in 2021 earned her the Hollywood Music in Media Award for Best Score for an International Feature Film, the Alex North Award for Best Score, the Society of Composers and Lyricists Award for Best Score for an Independent Film, as well as a nomination for the World Soundtrack Award – Public Choice, Latvia’s Golden Microphone Award for Best Instrumental Album, and the Big Christopher (Latvia’s equivalent to the Academy Award.) 2023 adds the Jerry Goldsmith Award nomination for her work on this epic score.

Recent career highlights include her orchestral score for Tahlequah- A Dance of Grief (to be released in 2023) – directed by Daniel Kreizberg, Christmas in Rome for Hallmark, Wild Daze (featuring Jane Goodall), music for the gender parity series Flip the Script (starring Lake Bell), as well as continued work alongside her fellow Dynamic Music Partners, Michael McCuistion and Kristopher Carter on fan-favorite productions: Warner Bros. Young Justice, Marvel Rising, feature length film Battle of the Super Sons (produced by Rick Morales), Justice League vs. the Fatal Five (produced by legendary producer/artist Bruce Timm), and in 2016, The Killing Joke (produced by Bruce Timm and starring Mark Hamill as the voice of The Joker). Other credits include Justice League (the theme, composed by Lolita, received a Primetime Emmy nomination), Teen Titans and Ben 10 (produced by Glen Murakami), Wacky Races, The Spectacular Spider-Man, Batman: The Animated Series, as well as composing score and songs for the Primetime Emmy nominated musical Batman: The Brave and the Bold: Mayhem of the Music Meister (produced by James Tucker, starring Neil Patrick Harris).

Ritmanis’s concert works as well as four original musicals have been seen and heard throughout the U.S., Canada, Europe, Taiwan and Australia. Her music has been performed at Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center in New York City, The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Koerner Hall in Toronto, The Krakow International Film Music Festival, Fimucité International Film Music Festival in Tenerife, Canary Islands, and Playfest in Ubeda, Spain. 

Early in her career, Ritmanis learned from the masters while working for such composing greats as Michael Kamen, Basil Poledouris, Mark Snow and Shirley Walker, among many others. Prior to focusing her career in composition, she was an orchestrator on over 100 films, mini-series and television programs including Lethal Weapon 4, The X-Files: Fight the Future, and Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves. She received her formal education at the Dick Grove School of Music, specializing in film scoring. 

In addition to serving on the executive Music Executive Committee of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, Ritmanis is a member of the Television Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and The Society of Composers and Lyricists. In 2018, she was honored with the BMI Champion Award, and in 2022 the BMI Impact Award.