Frank Macchia is a Grammy-nominated composer, arranger, orchestrator, multi-woodwind owner/operator, and a long-time Finale user. Scroll to the bottom of his bio page on his website to see an awesome list of top Hollywood films he’s orchestrated and world-class musicians he’s performed with.

Frank’s latest CD, “Saxolollapalooza” features Eric Marienthal, Sal Lozano, Bob Sheppard, Gene Cipriano, Jay Mason, and Frank on saxes and woodwinds and Peter Erskine on drums. If you recognize names like Marienthal and Erskine, you can imagine the level of musicianship on this eclectic mix of New Orleans second line feel, samba, funk, swing, ballads, and more. If you don’t recognize those names, now is a great time to fix that! Click here to hear to some samples.

I recently caught up with Frank and asked him to briefly describe his work with Finale:

“I work with Finale extensively, both on my original CD projects and as a film orchestrator for John Ottman, Trevor Rabin, Larry Groupe, Mark Isham, and also in my work as a copyist at the Disney Music Library. On my recent CD “Saxolollapalooza,” I used Finale to create scores and parts for the band, which consisted of 6 saxophonists and drums. I generally scratch some outline ideas out with pencil and music paper and then commit the ideas in full in Finale, but I’m also getting more and more comfortable just creating directly in Finale, as the editing functions are so thorough. 

“On my two previous CDs, “Emotions” and “Landscapes,” I worked with the Prague Orchestra and it was an incredible time- and cost-saver to simply put my Finale scores and parts on a server and have the librarian in Prague upload the files and print them out there, saving hundreds of dollars in shipping costs by avoiding packing a huge, heavy box of scores and parts for an international delivery. It worked flawlessly. 

“Over the last 17 years Finale has been a reliable friend that has allowed me to create a lot of music.”

I’d like to thank Frank for his support, time, and for the use of this really cool picture of his crazy contrabass flute!

PS: “Saxolollapalooza” is up for consideration of a Grammy nomination (in several categories) for the 52nd Grammy Awards, so if you’re a voting member of NARAS please check it out.