From Harvard to ‘La La Land’

Justin Hurwitz never even considered conservatory training. An accomplished pianist, the Los Angeles native wanted more from his college years than countless hours of practice and rehearsals.

So he attended Harvard. And it changed his life.

“I knew I wanted to study music but I also knew I wanted to go to school with a more diverse group,” said Hurwitz, whose score and original song “City of Stars” for the musical “La La Land” earned Golden Globes earlier this month, intensifying the Oscars buzz that has been swirling around the movie since the fall.

On Tuesday, “La La Land” received 14 Oscar nominations, a tie with “Titanic” and “All About Eve” for the most in Academy Award history.

The film, a love letter to song-and-dance spectaculars from the ’40s, ’50s, and ’60s, stars Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling as struggling artists who dream of making it big in Hollywood. The storyline struck a chord with Hurwitz, whose own dreams of success began taking shape in Cambridge in 2003.

On the phone recently from Los Angeles, the composer recalled being told a key Harvard takeaway would be “the people you meet.” It was a spot-on prediction. As a freshman he met Damien Chazelle, a skilled jazz drummer whose budding passion for film foreshadowed the screenplay and director Golden Globes he took home for “La La Land.”

A shared love of music brought the pair together. As freshmen they jammed around Boston with their Brit-pop-inspired band “Chester French” — Chazelle on the drums, Hurwitz on a Fender Rhodes electric piano.

“We were just kind of drawn to each other,” said Hurwitz.

Sophomore year the pair left the band, but their friendship deepened. As roommates at Currier House, in a space crowded with desks and Hurwitz’s piano, they pushed each other’s artistic boundaries, skipping parties and nights out to hone their respective crafts.

“He was writing screenplays at the time and directing short films for Harvard’s Department of Visual and Environmental Studies and I started to really appreciate who he was as a writer-director,” said Hurwitz. “And he was watching what I was working on, composing at my piano … and he started to appreciate what I do.”

Soon they were working on the jazzy musical “Guy and Madeline on a Park Bench.” The film, Chazelle’s senior thesis and a precursor to “La La Land,” made a splash on the festival circuit in 2009. Industry insiders took note.