Sony Classical has signed the Oscar-winning British composer Rachel Portman.

The partnership will begin this autumn with a solo piano recording of her newly arranged Emma - Piano Suite. The work is based on the themes from her score to Emma, which had earned her the Academy Award in 1997 for ‘Best Music, Original Score’, the first woman to have received an Oscar in this category. The sheet music for the suite will be released simultaneously, through Wise Music Group.

Newly signed to Sony Classical, Oscar-winning composer Rachel Portman (photo: Gregor Hohenberg)

Portman has written more than 100 scores for film, television and theatre, two more of which - The Cider House Rules and Chocolat - received Academy Award nominations. Her stage and concert hall works include an opera based on Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince (2003) for Houston Grand Opera, and the climate change-inspired choral symphony The Water Diviner's Tale (2007), premiered at the BBC Proms.

More recently Portman was commissioned by Joyce DiDonato to write a new work for the mezzo's environmental project, EDEN – The First Morning of the World, setting words by Gene Scheer. DiDonato had approached her after feeling, as she told Gramophone, that the composer was ‘on the same kind of journey as myself, getting more connected to nature’.

Other collaborations have included with children's author Sir Michael Morpurgo, including the BBC1 animation Mimi and the Mountain Dragon. You can hear Gramophone's Editor Martin Cullingford in conversation with Portman at the time of that project in a Gramophone Podcast below.

'We are honoured and excited to welcome the wonderful Rachel Portman to our Sony Classical family of artists,' said Alexander Buhr, Senior Vice President International A&R at Sony Masterworks. 'Her acclaimed work for screen and stage has set new standards with its characteristic elegance, beauty and emotional intelligence.'

Director of Sony Classical UK, Sarah Thwaites added of Portman that: 'Not only is she an exceptionally talented composer and pianist, she is also an inspiring role model, who has always been actively challenging stereotypes and forging a path for fellow women composers.'

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