Katy's early love of film brought her to the place she is now, creating beautifully scored music for independent films. Already a hopeless cinephile before she started studying music, composing scores in films became a tangible part of her cinematic language. With a pair of passionately knowledgable cinephile parents, she was lucky to have a well-curated introduction to film very early on – foreign movies, classic cinema, and independent films. Her grandparents, who were both accomplished musicians, bought Katy a piano when she was twelve, which is traditionally rather late to be starting an instrument. But within a year, she was composing for the orchestra. Film music became the natural union of her two passions.

Katy's musical career began after a rather brazenly double-major in music composition and film studies at Yale, which she still feels very influenced by. The faculty in both departments were inspiring, but there weren't many opportunities to compose for film on campus, and as a composition student, she found herself mainly studying the Western canon and writing concert music.

Katy was forced to get creative, so she ended up directing some films and composing her own scores. After graduation she began to feel a little lost in directing and grad school felt like a good way to refocus. After earning her masters at NYU, Sundance accepted Katy into their Music and Sound Design Lab at Skywalker Sound, where she started to hear her own voice clarify as a composer.

Currently, Katy is working on a film called Clementine, directed by Lara Gallagher, that'll be premiering 2019. Before she began work on the film, Lara asked her to score a Nike commercial she was directing featuring LeBron James, which was offered one of those rare opportunities to create a piece for advertising that was complex and nuanced.

"Film scoring feels like the ultimate creative collaboration – the music wouldn't exist without the filmmaker's vision, but at the same time, they're depending on your unique voice to complete that vision." Katy states in a reaction to her role as a composer. "Last year, I got to work with Nicole Perlman, who co-wrote Guardians of the Galaxy and Captain Marvel, on her directorial debut, The Slows, a short film that premiered at Fantasy Fest. The sound design was being done at Skywalker, and the first thing we did was set up a one-day mini 'lab' situation where the three of us – Nicole, the sound designer, and I – spotted the film together and chose one scene to work on over the day. Most of the time, you don't get that kind of immersive collaboration."

However, it's not all beautiful music. Being a freelance, unrepresented artist is still a hard road to walk down. And composing can be a lonely and stationary endeavor. "Your mind is buzzing all day, but you're primarily sitting at a desk, alone and isolated, not getting any exercise or human interaction. I'm an only child and already a bit of an extroverted hermit, so parts of the creative hibernation lifestyle suit my personality, but I've learned that making time for friends and physical activity and non-musical hobbies is just as important to the creative process as actually composing." In addition to the solidarity of the profession, there just aren't very many women composers in the industry – you really can't deny statistics, women are simply underrepresented behind camera and even less so in the recording studio. A bright spot in all this is the turn to truly visionary women filmmakers who are often themselves supporting awareness by hiring women composers. Last year, only six percent of all top-grossing films were scored by women – that's a number that can inspire either a feeling of defeat or defiance, and we need to focus all our energy on the latter.

But the music wins out over the hardships. Some of the things that inspire Katy musically are limitless. "When you're writing music all day, your brain starts to re-wire a bit to the point where any given emotion or random object or street scene or news story can spark a musical connotation.

Looking forward, Katy is specifically excited about completing her first album, called Hysterical, for small chamber ensemble, Slavic women's choir, and sound design. It's just as ambitious as it sounds, and the title says a lot about both Katy and her music. "It's turned into this awesome journey of beautiful dissonances and sonic experimentation and creative freedom. The ultimate long-term dream, in the farthest corners of my imagination, is to be appreciated for my own creative voice and to work on projects that resonate with me, that move my guts around."