It’s my first time writing our annual Cabaret Show in two years. In the meantime, I’ve made the switch from Finale, which I used from 1993 to 2020, to Dorico.
The element that is most important to me in writing our Cabaret Show is speed – I try to get my writing time down to 20 minutes per arrangement, so that I can complete the large number of arrangements (around 35) in the limited time I have (around 2 1/2 weeks). For that, workflow is the most important thing – a template file that does what I want it to do, scores I’m working from in the right format, and most importantly, an intuitive sense of the software so that I can work without thinking about the tool.
I couldn’t have done that a year ago – Dorico was far too fresh. But now, I feel more confident, and I’ve been “practicing” with some other projects over the last few weeks – getting my tools together and comfortable. I spent a couple of hours before auditions building a template file – tweaking everything I could think of to make it as smooth as possible.
It’s going to be hard – I did it a dozen times in Finale, and had years of practice before the first Cabaret show I wrote. I’m excited for the challenge but also excited for what I’ll learn along the way. Stay tuned for the final outcome!