Leanna Primiani, 32, also believes in versatility, and in search of it has branched out to work with rock producer Bob Ezrin.
"It's time composers turn off their snobbery," she says. "The thing is that classical musicians make a mistake and stick with one thing. The reality is people need music for everything. There's music on websites, so much commercial music and so much need for it. Why should we who work so hard, know so much, sit back and let someone else who buys a computer and calls himself a composer do it? People who want to can make a good living."
To date, Primiani has written music for reality TV, a horror movie and video games, as well as serious works such as "Sirens," to be premiered by conductor Leonard Slatkin and the Nashville Symphony in 2008-09. She also came to composing late, having first studied conducting at the Peabody and San Francisco conservatories. She changed direction after working with Hungarian composer-conductor Peter Eotvos in Amsterdam in 2000.
"I came back and really started to compose," says Primiani, who's completing a doctorate at USC. "I had never thought about doing it until then."
She's had a number of works performed, including the pilot of an opera, "The Truman Project," based on President Truman's angry letter to a Washington Post critic over his review of daughter Margaret's recital, presented at an Opera America conference in Seattle last year and currently in development in a Los Angeles Opera workshop.
"Trying to get something new programmed is hard enough," she says. "But is an audience going to want to hear something by a Mr. Smith or by John Corigliano? Not only is the pot small, but it actually becomes more limited because of the name recognition."
Yet she believes composers aren't unique in that respect. "Doing anything in any performance field is the same, especially in Los Angeles. There's a lot of talent. The trick for anyone in any field is to get yourself noticed and for someone to take a chance and say, 'Yes, I'll use you.' "
Other USC composers say they're prepared for a divided future as well. Steven Gates, 31, who is also finishing a doctorate, has had two songs for guitar and voice published and recorded by Doberman Editions in Canada.
"This type of music doesn't sell a lot of copies. It's not 'Harry Potter,' " he says. "I don't think it will amount to much of a financial impact at all. The windfall is in getting published. I'm interested in academia. I want to teach -- not that I don't want to pursue a career as a composer, but I'm also pragmatic."
