Orchestrators can best be described as modern-day monks: locked away in some tiny cell for weeks at a time, huddled for endless hours over some form of parchment, inscribing little dots and occasional words in a rather arcane language that can only be understood by musicians. I, on the other hand, have always been an Ariel: I like to be where the people are. (Or, to put it another way, I like to be in the rehearsal room where it happens). All that to say that I very much think like an orchestrator when I arrange music -- I hear the fully orchestrated version in my head -- but I generally leave it up to the experts to turn a Piano/Vocal score into a full score, with individual lines for each player, whether rhythm players (aka Bangers), string players (aka Scrapers), or brass and woodwind players (aka Blowers).

I did cut my teeth orchestrating quite a few charts for the Boston Pops over the years, and as a Music Director, Conductor, and Arranger, it's important to know the ins and outs of every instrument and the specific needs of the players.

But the big change was when I got into TV. There's (usually) no rehearsal process "in the room", so it made sense to do all the arranging and orchestrating together in one fell swoop. FWIW, I credit the late great Adam Schlesinger for kickstarting my orchestration career with Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. He called me up one day out of the blue (we had met when I did the dance music for his one Broadway outing, Cry-Baby). He had written a big dance number 'Head in the Clouds' and asked me to arrange AND orchestrate it. I said sure, why not? And from that point on, I orchestrated everything that Adam wrote. I admit that I love doing it.