On Entertainment by Steven Libowitz
Harmonious Hurwitz’s Lay of the La La Land
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eff Bridges, Montecito’s most famous actor, is being honored once again by the Santa Barbara International Film Festival (SBIFF). The veteran movie star receives SBIFF’s 2017 American Riviera Award on Thursday, February 9, celebrating his long career capped by his Academy Award-nominated supporting role in Hell or High Water, which is up for Best Picture. But Bridges is far from the only Montecito moment at this year’s SBIFF. In fact, the young film composer – who is considered a mortal lock to pick up his first two Oscars at the end of the month – actually grew up in the village back in the 1990s. Justin Hurwitz, who wrote the score and all of the songs in the Oscar-front running musical La La Land, moved to Montecito when he was three in 1998, went to Montecito Union School for grades 1-6, and a year at Santa Barbara Junior High, before his family relocated to Wisconsin. Hurwitz met his best friend and future colleague Damien Chazelle at Harvard, and they’ve been basically inseparable ever since, having collabo-
just played the normal piano recitals. But my sister Hanna is a professional violinist now, and she was very involved in the music scene there. She went to the Music Academy of the West (in 2006-07).
Steven Libowitz has reported on the arts and entertainment for more than 30 years; he has contributed to the Montecito Journal for more than ten years.
rated on their first three movies – Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench, 2015’s Oscar nominated Whiplash, and now La La Land, which landed a record-tying 14 Academy Award nominations. Hurwitz will be back in Santa Barbara on Monday, February 6, to receive a SBIFF Variety Artisans Award for his work on the movie musical hit. He talked about the film, and his start in Montecito, over the phone from the set for the upcoming season of Curb Your Enthusiasm, where he’s serving as one of the writers.
Justin Hurwitz, music man behind the vastly nominated La La Land
Q. Were you into music when you lived here in town? A. I started piano lessons when I was 6 in Santa Barbara [first with Bill Barrons, who was a student at Lana Bodnar’s, then with Lana herself] and then I started composing when I was 10. My parents got me a synthesizer and sequencer from one of the local music stores. I remember I did a couple of local composition contests around that time, when I was 10 or 11, which were a lot of fun. Otherwise, I
What got you into film composing as opposed to classical music? It was toward the end of high school that I realized I wanted to do things for film. I wasn’t that interested or even good enough at anything else, and nothing but music had been as consuming for me. When I was composing, the hours would just disappear in a way they didn’t when I was doing anything else, even just playing piano. Sometimes I was passionate about it, but other times it was like pulling teeth to get me to practice. But with composing, my bedtime would come and go and my parents would have to come tell me, “Hey, you were supposed to be in bed three hours ago.” It’s great when you are just consumed by something like that and don’t even know what time it is. I studied composition and theory and orchestration at Harvard. That’s also where you and Damien become friends and soon colleagues. What drew you to each other?
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