The Maestro is a 2018 American historical drama directed, produced by Adam Cushman and David J. Phillips and written by C.V. Herst, the real-life son of the film's protagonist Jerry Herst.

The film features Xander Berkeley as composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, an Italian immigrant who arrived in Los Angeles in the thirties after evading Mussolini's Italy.

[3][4] After World War II, budding musician Jerry Herst (Leo Marks) returns to Los Angeles for one more go at becoming a successful film composer.

In Los Angeles, Herst studies with the famed instructor Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Xander Berkeley), whose students include John Williams, Andre Previn, Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle and Jerry Goldsmith.

Herst, who already had a hit under his belt, 1937's "So Rare", struggles between family pressure and his musical calling, as Tedesco teaches him what it means to be a successful artist.