For budding Mozarts ...

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What do you do if you’re a teenager interested in a career as a composer — of, you know, like, classical music? Well, if you live in the Los Angeles area, and you’re lucky, you become part of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Composer Fellowship Program, a two-year course of study that began in fall 2007.

As Karen Wada writes in the Arts & Books section, the four tyros who are the first of these fellows have had access to artists and performance opportunities that the finest conservatories would find hard to match. They’ve met with members of the philharmonic as well as its esteemed music director, Esa-Pekka Salonen. They’ve been mentored by Steven Stucky, the orchestra’s Pulitzer Prize-winning consulting composer for new music. And this week, they will hear their own compositions, inspired by Walt Disney Concert Hall, played by the philharmonic.

This month, applications will go out for the next group of fellows. Maybe one or more of them, unlike in the first bunch, will be female.

— Craig Fisher