Music and Creative Beginnings with Justin Levine
The Harvest Series podcast, hosted by Rose Claverie, welcomes award-winning composer and music supervisor Justin Levine for a very special conversation that unfolds as much through sound as through words. Recorded in nature during Harvest, this episode blends music, reflection, and creative honesty.
Levine shares how creativity should exist beyond productivity, why vulnerability is essential in collaboration, and how major works like Moulin Rouge! are built through trust, humility, and collective vision. He also reflects on courage, leadership, and learning to let creativity exist without judgment.
What happens when we stop asking creativity to justify itself and allow it to simply be part of how we live?
Chapters
00:00 – Welcome to Harvest
01:05 – Music as conversation, not performance
03:40 – Teaching creativity for its own sake
05:10 – Starting without talent or permission
06:30 – Growing up self-taught in a musical home
08:40 – Discovering music as a profession
10:15 – What a music director actually does
14:20 – Orchestrating Moulin Rouge!
18:15 – Collaboration, ego, and leadership
21:00 – Adapting iconic works for Broadway
26:35 – Violence, music, and emotional impact
32:40 – Courage, vulnerability, and creative trust
36:20 – Closing reflections and music
You can follow us on Instagram at @HarvestSeries or @rose.claverie for updates.
Watch our podcast episodes and speaker sessions on YouTube: Harvest Series.
Credits:
- Sound editing by: @lesbellesfrequences
- Technician in Kaplankaya: Joel Moriasi
- Music by: Chambord
Harvest Series is produced in partnership with Athena Advisers and Capital Partners
Harvest Series Founders: Burak Öymen and Roman Carel
