You asked, I arranged: how a score request becomes a score

On a Sunday evening in November a viola teacher emailed me about a piece I didn't have. Her student was learning the first movement of Seitz's Student Concerto No. 3 and wanted to play it with the school orchestra rather than with piano. By Wednesday it was on the website, and she bought it that evening.

That's the request service in one story. If you're looking for a piece with string orchestra and can't find it, tell me what it is. I read every request myself. If the piece will work with strings, I arrange it and send you the score to check. Most take between one and four weeks. There's no commission fee: you pay the normal score price once you're happy with it, and like every MyMusicScores score it comes with permission to perform and record, with no licence to pay.

Why the Seitz took some thought

Viola players learn this concerto in C minor, a fifth below Seitz's violin original. Most viola editions move the solo down a fifth and the piano up a fourth. It's quick, but it leaves the accompaniment higher than Seitz wrote it, often sitting right on top of the viola.

So I revoiced the whole orchestra around the soloist, and wrote a short closing tutti so the first movement can stand on its own. The solo part is about Grade 7, the orchestra parts around Grade 5 to 6 (Advanced Intermediate), and it lasts about four minutes.

Once the first movement was done I arranged the other two as well, so the complete concerto is there too.

Three from October

Three requests went live in October, all diploma standard: Hubay's Carmen Fantaisie, the first movement of Wieniawski's Violin Concerto No. 2, and the Chaconne in G minor attributed to Vitali, in Léopold Charlier's 1911 version. Two of them were for players entering competitions.

The Wieniawski was asked for twice in the same week, by two different players. The Vitali went from the first email to the website in four days.

These three arrangements have been purchased multiple times in six different countries since they went live in October. For me, that shows that there was a need for these arrangements.

The one that kept going

Amy Beach's Romance Op. 23 started as a request for violin and string orchestra at the end of 2024. Versions for viola and for cello followed in February 2025, and all three have kept selling ever since, to players in Europe, the US and Asia.

Smaller requests travel too. Corelli's La Folia, in Leonard's version, was asked for in February for one child's solo with a children's string orchestra in London. It has since been bought in Germany and Australia. The first movement of Dvořák's Violin Concerto, asked for in October 2025, has sold this year in the US and Mexico.

Why I like being asked

I love getting score requests, and for more than one reason.

Arranging is a job you do on your own, in your study. Sending a score off to another musician for their thoughts, and hearing what they would change or what they would try instead, is one of the best ways I know to learn and to see a piece from a different point of view. Along the way I get to know musicians from all over the world.

I also like solving problems. If someone has to ask for a score, the chances are nobody has arranged it before, and that makes it special.

Most of all, I love arranging a piece a teacher has asked for so that a young player can perform it with an orchestra. Being a small part of that musician's journey is a privilege.

What helps me most

• The piece and the composer, and the edition you know, if you have one
• What it's for: a concert, a competition, an exam, a student's solo spot
• Who's playing: the soloist's standard, and the orchestra you'll have

How to ask

Use the request page: https://mymusicscores.com/score-request/