Seventeen composers primed to take their place on the A-list

August 20, 2009 At a certain point in the mid-'80s, some theater in Boston was showing "Lawrence of Arabia," and my father took me to see it and I just remember that being the most mind-blowing musical experience. At the time, I was naive and thought he was just writing whatever he wanted with no form and didn't realize the movie was dictating what he was writing, but that was the jumping-off point for me. If you're of a retiring nature, like I've always been, it's challenging that you work with these larger-than-life, sort of Henry VIII characters, which many directors are.

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