Dear Leo (dir. Emma Rappold) is a feature-length film completely written and produced by undergraduate students. The film is about a girl named Annie (Jill Young) transitioning into a new life in college told through letters with her 13-year-old cousin Leo (Ethan Bernardini). I spent my junior year at the University of Texas at Austin composing the score for a live orchestra, and conducted the orchestra in a recording session in Bates Recital Hall in Austin, TX.
Thank you to all the people involved in making Dear Leo possible: the entire film crew, the wonderful members of the Dear Leo Orchestra, Andrew Stoltz, Jessy Eubanks, Big Wy’s Brass Band, Matthew Thomas, and my indispensable mentors Donald Grantham, Sam Lipman, and Yevgeniy Sharlat
Austin Ali 