About Colonial Road Music

Celebrating 20 years of providing exceptionally high quality, symphony pops arrangements to almost every orchestra in the U.S. and Canada and conducting these arrangements worldwide, CEO/Conductor-Arranger Victor Vanacore, reflects on the auspicious start to his foray into symphony pops orchestrations.

Many years ago, when I first began conducting symphony pops for noted performers, to include Ray Charles, David Copperfield, Barry Manilow, Johnny Mathis, The 5th Dimension and others, I was somewhat surprised with the quality of the charts available to the Pops Orchestra Market.

Attending numerous concerts, I heard symphonies performing the first half of the concert, playing arrangements of Ellington, The Beatles and other Pop groups, while trying to be germane to the evening of music. 

“Every time the main act would take the stage in the second half of the concert, there was a marked difference in the sound of the orchestra. Swing arrangements had more swing and were playable by any section, brass was voiced much more brilliantly and strings possessed parts that made them an integral part of the arrangement.

Ray Charles was a frequent performer with a particular symphony and, for a special performance there, I had written charts for Ray. At the end of the evening, the artistic director was so enthusiastically impressed with the sound of the orchestra and my arrangements, she suggested I start thinking about writing for Symphony Pops. Immediately after winning my first Grammy Award in 2004 for best arrangement accompanying a vocal, Colonial Road Music was born with the moniker "Redefining Symphony Pops".