Michael Starobin is an orchestrator, composer, arranger, and musical director, primarily for the stage, film and television. He won Tony Awards for the orchestrations of Assassins (2004) and Next to Normal (2009 with Tom Kitt). The first Broadway musical that he provided the orchestrations for was Sunday in the Park with George in 1984, for which he won the 1984 Drama Desk Award for Outstanding Orchestration. He has also provided orchestrations, or been the Musical Director, for many Off-Broadway musicals. He wrote the orchestrations for several works by Lynn Ahrens and Stephen Flaherty, such as Once on This Island (1990), as well as William Finn, including In Trousers, Falsettoland, and The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.

In these 30 minutes or so, you’ll hear the Tony Award-winning Orchestrator of shows like Sunday in the Park with George, Next to Normal, Falsettos and more (click here for his crazy list of credits) talk about . . .

The difference between arranging and orchestrating.

Why Orchestrators are like painters.

His two rules for Broadway Producers on how to avoid a flop.

What it was like orchestrating with a pencil and paper, and how digital notation changed all of that . . . and whether that’s a good thing.

Why his orchestrations may be on other people’s shows and vice-versa.


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