Berklee Online Student Chris LaRosa Places Top 5 in European Recording Orchestra Contest

Chris LaRosa had quite a bit of musical experience before he began taking classes with Berklee Online. After studying and performing classical music at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna, completing a doctorate in composition at Indiana University Jacobs School of Music, obtaining a degree in music theory from Boston University, and working as a staff arranger for the US Army, he decided to enroll in Berklee Online’s Film Scoring graduate program. Hearing a live orchestra perform one of his scores—an assignment for the Composing the Orchestral Film Score course—was a pivotal moment that led him to submit the piece to the European Recording Orchestra’s Call for Scores Contest, where he became one of the top five finalists.

This contest consisted of around 900 participants from a variety of different countries and encouraged composers to submit their scores to have them played by an orchestra. The pieces were performed in front of a jury of industry professionals, who Chris was able to impress with his composition “Valor and Fury,” written for his final project.

“One of the things that I’ve been learning in this program is how to lay out a piece of music in a way so that it is following a strict timeline, so the musical events are occurring at the right exact frame on the film,” says LaRosa, “But I think the most challenging thing is finding the sound palette that is most appropriate for the film.”

For his assignment, LaRosa had to compose a piece of music in accordance with a given script that described the final scene of a science fiction film. The script featured an alien invasion in which there is a hero that saves the day and is awarded medals afterwards. The musical composition is meant to describe the action, suspense, and celebration scenes as the script progresses.

Wow, Chris! I’m so blown away. You have an INCREDIBLE piece for your demo and this has exceeded all my expectations. I hope you are happy with this …

Composing the Orchestral Film Score instructor Sean McMahon in a comment posted to Chris LaRosa and the rest of his class on their final assignment.

According to LaRosa, the process of composing this piece and the course itself offered him new learning outcomes, such as the experience of recording remotely with an orchestra. “I have never done that before and this was really eye-opening for me,” LaRosa says. “In this case, the orchestra was recording in Budapest and I was at my home in Montreal. It was just really wild that in real time I could be monitoring the session and producing from my home.”

LaRosa says he didn’t realize his affinity for composing music for film until later in his career, though his first connection with music came at an early age. His older brother inspired him to play the piano at the age of six, and he began to appreciate music composition when his grandmother asked him to compose some music for her poetry. He continued to follow this passion through his childhood and teenage years, and LaRosa still composes music to poetry (more on that later). At first, LaRosa only composed for concert music since it was the most accessible form of composition for him, but when he joined the Army he discovered that he was capable of composing music for films. 

LaRosa was a staff arranger for the Army Band, where he had the opportunity to arrange and compose a variety of different styles for sitting US presidents and world leaders at the White House, the Pentagon, and Arlington National Cemetery. Through that experience, Chris discovered his love for arranging pieces for films after his colonel asked him to transcribe and arrange some film music for the Army Band. 

After years of studying composition and having the experience of working as a concert composer, LaRosa founded CG Music Academy as a way of educating the community about music. For LaRosa, “building a career as a composer is an entrepreneurial marathon, not a sprint,” he says. “Try to build income streams that will keep the lights on without taking too much of your time. I founded a music academy five years ago, which is still my primary source of income.”

As for now, LaRosa is working on multiple projects including the production of a piece called “When You Were Nearly Two” in which he takes advantage of the recording session he won in the Call for Scores contest. He dedicated this piece to his two-year old son, trying to capture a feeling that new parents can relate to.

“You start seeing the world through your child’s eyes,” he says. “I wanted to write a piece that catches that innocence and wonder.” 

Additionally, LaRosa recently started working on a piece for Ernest Hilbert’s upcoming poetry book, High Ashes and a 15-minute concert work on the poems of Adele Graf, for the Ottawa Choral Society’s 2025-2026 season. 

LaRosa emphasizes that achieving success in film scoring relies on the emotions composers put into their works and the willingness to collaborate with others. 

“The best thing you can do as a composer is to work on your skills as much as you can, but also make friends, because your friends are the people that hire you,” he says. “You can be the greatest composer, orchestrator, or arranger there ever was, but what does it matter if no one knows who you are?”