Meet Neusha Taherian | Music Composer & Music Editor

We had the good fortune of connecting with Neusha Taherian and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Neusha, how do you think about risk?
In my experience, much of risk taking boils down to listening to your gut and taking leaps of faith. It’s changing course whenever the opportunity presents itself, even if you are unsure if you’ll succeed.

I feel like most of my trajectory into my career was doing exactly that. From first deciding to go to an art degree college, despite the fact that my whole family was in sciences and the option was never presented to me, to deciding to move to LA to pursue my dream job. At the beginning, I was in theater and film school in Montreal, with no plan to go into music as a career. It wasn’t until I went to the open house of the undergrad university, where the undergraduate degree in Music Composition peaked my interest. I was nowhere near being good enough in theory to even apply, but I met Dr Christine Beckett who was presenting the program to prospective students, and after she gave me a little push to apply, I decided to spend a few months before the application deadline just studying music theory and practicing piano. In the end, I got in, and it is really thanks to Christine that my career shifted towards music instead of theater and film. If it were not for her, I probably wouldn’t have taken that risk and be here today.

From there, I took a leap of faith to do a semester of music in Ireland; learning skills that I use quite a lot today. I got used to traveling, so I took another leap of faith during the pandemic and applied for grad school in Film Music in one of the top schools in the world for the career. When the program director asked me why I had applied to Columbia College Chicago, I answered honestly; it was a gut feeling. I even got into SFCM as well, and they were offering me a higher scholarship, which would be the safer option out of the two. But again, I listened to my gut and took the risk to go to Chicago.

Now, I am working full time in LA as an assistant to a composer (H Scott Salinas) as well as a music editor and additional composers for projects. Everything kind of just … happened. And is still happening. You have to have a bit of an “F- it” attitude. What’s the worst that can happen?

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I am currently working in LA as a Film and TV composer as well as a Music Editor. Getting to this point in my life was definetly a journey, and it had many twists and turns.

I started out initially working in Theatre in Montreal, as an actor, writer, director … really anything that I could get my hands on. I always loved music and had been playing piano and singing since I was a kid, but I wasn’t so confident to really write my own music. I thought working as another creative in entertainment was more accessible at the time. But slowly, I started going to school for composition initially, and then to higher education specializing in Film, TV and Video Game composing. During this time, I started shifting from being an actor/writer/director to composer and musical director on shows like “To Kill A Sacred Duck”, “Slaying in Suburbia” and “Mostly Scripted”. First starting in festivals, and writing contemporary classical pieces for instillations and other festivals, I really thought I was going to remain in the realm of live music.

It wasn’t until the pandemic hit that I had to quickly switch routes, as there wasn’t much opportunity for live music settings. I spent the first year of the pandemic learning as much as I can about music software for media sync specifically, and getting more familiar with writing to picture. Since the pandemic hadn’t ended like we originally thought it would, I just decided to keep going and apply for a Masters at Columbia College Chicago and the rest was really history. I worked on a few short films during my time in grad school, then interned with composer H. Scott Salinas after graduating. After a month of the internship, he had me join his team and I was fortunate to work on projects like Apple TV’s “The Dynasty: The New England Patriots” and Netflix’s “American Symphony” as a music editor and additional composer. I recently wrapped up the short film “Bush” by Emma Mazurek which is currently making it’s festival rounds.

The challenges I was faced was really outside of my work. I always had to be ressourseful and think quickly on my feet when it comes to my career, and though I have been fortunate in that aspect, it didn’t mean that life was easy. There were many moments where I barely had any money to get by, when I was eating peanut butter sandwiches because I couldn’t afford more food, and to this day I still don’t have a car in LA … which I have been told is a rare thing. But I always had friends to lean on and always had to reassess my situation every now and then. To pick myself up despite my living and financial challenges, and to ask for help when I needed it. I think something I learned was really to breathe through it and to know I will figure out a way to make it in any situation, and to not be afraid to go for opportunities even if they seem out of my reach. Because what have I got to lose if I don’t have so much to begin with?

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
I would definetly bring people towards the water. I find the ocean here in LA so calming, and there are so many beaches to discover. I come from a cold island up North, where it sometimes snows 5-7 months in the year, so even just being here in the sun, near the ocean, is good enough to have a good time. There are also so many hiking trails to see around the county, and so many cool national parks closeby (like Joshua Tree). It would definetly be a Nature Tour.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
Dr Christine Beckett, who was the person who encouraged me to apply for a degree in Music Composition, despite the fact that I had quit playing music entirely a few years before that. She was the person who suggested I study in Ireland, and has always been a voice of encouragement in my life.

Website: https://neushataherian.com

Instagram: @neushmaister

Other: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm15546039/