Teen works his way into ‘major leagues’ of music

Instead of listening to top 40 hits, like many of his peers do, Daniel Zarb-Cousin’s headphones are filled with the sounds of Igor Stravinsky, Gustav Mahler and Alfred Schnittke.

The 17-year-old Huntington Beach resident has also been composing his own works since he was 12, and last month was named one of three cash-prize winners in the full orchestra category in the nationwide Young Composers Challenge contest, which is open to participants 12 to 18. About 90 people entered, he said.

As part of the distinction, a full professional orchestra at the Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in Florida will play his winning piece, “Largo for Orchestra,” in November.

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Daniel, who will be a senior at Edison High School this upcoming school year, hasn’t been a fan only of the world’s most influential composers. He used to play bluegrass music on an electric bass guitar with his mother in West Virginia.

“The stuff I wrote [then] was kind of silly,” he recalled. “I remember the first song was about snail movements, and then I wrote a piece about a mantis magician. ... There’s a lot of stuff that I’ve written just for fun and just to develop myself, but there’s not a lot of written stuff that I’d want to be remembered for in 30 years.”

He began taking composing more seriously in high school after hearing “Rite of Spring” by Stravinsky.

The piece, he said, moved him to listen to more classical music, starting with 20th century pieces.

“When you get to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, right before the wars and lots of tension, that’s when modernism starts,” he said. “That’s what a lot of people think of when they hear classical music, but modern classical music is actually very dissonant, coarse and almost gross-sounding at times.”

One of his most serious pieces, the award-winning “Largo for Orchestra,” took him just two days to write on the computer. He said he misunderstood the deadline for submission in the contest — he thought he had until June but actually had only two days left in May.

“But it was very natural and flowed,” he said. “Usually it takes a long time to write a piece.”

He said that while writing on the computer is more modern — and something he was taught at Edison — he prefers writing by hand and using real instruments. (Writing music on a computer requires specialized programs to help with the creation of the musical notes and the playback of the sounds, and some composers find that it isn’t as conducive to the creative process.)

Daniel will often write pieces by hand then play them on his piano, tenor saxophone, clarinet or violin. He prefers writing over playing.

“Writing for virtual instruments is kind of a bad habit because they’re not real,” said Daniel, whose pieces can range from 20 to 30 minutes. “If I ever want my stuff to be played — which it will be — I need to go the old-fashioned route. Real instruments make the music more heartfelt, I think. When you’re writing on the computer, it’s very easy to get lazy. When you’re writing on the piano, you have to think about it, and it can take a long time.”

Daniel, who tends to improvise and is not classically trained, said his goal is to attend the New England Conservatory of Music, widely recognized as among the country’s most reputable music schools, major in music composition and become a professional composer.

He hopes to “gain a name” while in college.

Timothy J. Benge, director of instrumental music at Edison, said Daniel is well on his way.

“To put this in perspective, Daniel’s musical potential is on the same level as the young person who is drafted into the major leagues of basketball or baseball right out of high school,” he said. “He has the potential to be the next Michael Giacchino or John Williams.... He’s equally comfortable in jazz styles, where he might be improvising the music of Miles Davis or John Coltrane. It’s this breadth and depth of musical understanding that has led to his winning composition.”

Joseph Zarb-Cousin, Daniel’s father, said he was proud of his son, even though it’s a hobby he’s not too familiar with.

“I’ve never seen someone as focused as him in regards to something like this,” he said. “If he was playing football, I’d be able to say, ‘Hey, my son’s got a little bit of talent.’ With this, I don’t know much about it, so I’ve never been able to really understand it or know his talent. When he won, it really just validated everything that he’s been working for.”

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Brittany Woolsey, brittany.woolsey@latimes.com

Twitter: @BrittanyWoolsey