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Composer, arranger and conductor Esin Aydingoz, nominated for the 66th Grammy Awards with her cello arrangement of The Rolling Stones' classic Paint It Black, spoke to Anadolu Agency about the milestones that shaped her career and the importance of resilience.
Known for arrangements in Tim Burton’s series Wednesday and nominated at the 66th Grammy Awards for a cello arrangement of The Rolling Stones classic “Paint It Black,” she walked through the turning points that helped her break through.
Aydingoz started playing the piano at age four and initially did not plan to turn it into a profession. After part-time piano studies at Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University, she began composing her own pieces and found that music had become a driving passion. She then trained at Berklee College of Music, first joining a five-week summer program in 2010 at age 16 before winning admission to the university.
She completed double majors in film scoring and a program combining contemporary writing and production, alongside a minor in musical theater writing, studied for five years, and moved on to Los Angeles while continuing to work with Türkiye whenever possible.
She pointed to several moments that opened things up: an internship at Hans Zimmer’s studios in Los Angeles; early work with Disney Concerts on DCapella, a seven-member a cappella project where she moved from music assistant to associate music director; and then Wednesday, which, she noted, brought the Grammy nomination. In season one she served as an arranger on four pieces, including “Paint It Black.”
For season two she returned as a songwriter to deliver a school anthem for the show’s setting, Nevermore Academy. “The creative process started with me this time,” she said, explaining that the team built lyrics over her melody and shot scenes to the music. Work on the song took place around March 2024. “Really, Lady Gaga comes in as a teacher, but we cannot share more,” she added, noting that Catherine Zeta-Jones is among the performers who sing the piece.
Aydingoz said conducting strongly feeds her composing. While she does not produce the sound herself on the podium, she communicates it through motion and timing, and sometimes joins projects as a pianist to create the sound directly.
“The moments when I conduct are when I feel like I am flying,” she said. Her first conducting project that changed gears was Disney and Pixar’s Coco, which led her to tour North America twice with a Mexican orchestra. Before concerts, she works for one to two months to absorb the score, orchestration, and film synchronization.
She enjoys weaving in Turkish rhythmic meters—such as 7/8 and 9/8—that are uncommon in Western music. She serves on the board of the newly founded Turkish American Orchestra, led by Nisan Ak and Ulku Rowe, and wrote both commissioned arrangements and original pieces for its first concert.
One of those works, "The Land of Passion," reflects on Türkiye and its people. She said it means a great deal when families tell her after shows that she was the first woman they saw on the podium or that a child experienced their first live concert under her baton.
Among the artists she looks up to is John Williams. “John Williams is 93 and still writes concertos and gives world premieres,” she noted, drawing a lesson about resilience and preparation: “I think the most important thing is to never let your courage be broken. You need to be ready when opportunities come.”
Five years after graduating, she returned to Berklee as associate chair of the film scoring department, a role she held for 13 months before stepping away when Disney offered her a conducting tour that matched her childhood dream. She continues to teach online master’s courses at Berklee.
Her works have been performed at venues including Auditorium Stravinski in Switzerland, and she composed a world-premiere piece for the Royal Bangkok Symphony Orchestra, which she conducted herself in Bangkok. Pianist Dzintra Erliha performed her pieces at Carnegie Hall in New York in a program devoted to women composers. She also said music should be accessible to everyone, so she gladly writes for youth ensembles when asked.
In Türkiye, she led "The Lion King" in concert on June 8, 2024, at Harbiye Open-Air and conducted the film’s animated version again in January and February 2025 with the Istanbul Film Orchestra in Ankara and Istanbul. She is currently working on a documentary about Bhutan, a video game rooted in Turkish mythology and folk narratives, and musical arrangements for several Netflix projects. “I love working in Türkiye and in the United States,” she said, adding that she aims to carry on in both countries.
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