Painting with Sound: Arranging Creativity with Sean O’Loughlin
by Rebecca Marchand
Sean O’Loughlin, Principal Pops Conductor
Long before the first rehearsal begins, before a single note reaches the hall, Sean O’Loughlin is already deep in the music—listening, imagining, and making choices that most audiences will never see, but will absolutely feel.
As Principal Pops Conductor of the Victoria Symphony, Sean is known for his megawatt smile, warmth and humour. But behind that lightness is a composer and arranger with an extraordinary sensitivity to sound—and to the musicians who bring it to life.
“Often when I write, there’s no music to start with,” Sean explains. “My job is to take what I hear and translate it into something the orchestra can play.”
Sounds simple enough. But, that act of translation—turning recordings, ideas, or sometimes little more than a melody into a fully realized orchestral score—is where Sean’s artistry and craftsmanship meet and really come alive.
From Listening to Building
You might envision a composer seated by candlelight, transcribing notes as inspiration strikes. Not exactly, Sean tells us, especially when it comes to tackling arrangement.
“I always start at the bottom,” he says. “Find the bassline. That usually tells you where the harmony lives.”
From there, he works upward: melody, chords, and finally colour. This is where the work becomes something closer to painting than math. For Sean, it can’t just be a technical exercise. It’s a creative conversation between composer and orchestra, practicality and imagination.
“What colour do I want here?” he asks. “What emotion am I trying to bring out there?”
Additionally, each section of the orchestra offers its own emotional language. An oboe can sound heartbreakingly tender. A clarinet carries a humble, noble warmth. Flutes can feel wispy and fragile. And the strings, capable of both quiet intimacy and soaring power, can shift the emotional temperature in an instant.
“Knowing which combinations create certain feelings, that’s the real craft,” Sean says. “And our players have all of that and then some. They’re just so good.”
Writing for Our VS
Arranging or composing for the Victoria Symphony is different than writing for a commercial project or a one-off performance.
“There’s a personal connection when I write for this orchestra,” Sean says. “I know the musicians. I know their sound and their personalities.”
That familiarity allows Sean to shape music that doesn’t just work, it fits. He crafts music designed to highlight the orchestra’s strengths, to give space for individual voices to shine, and to ensure the ensemble sounds its very best.
It’s a rare treat for any orchestra to have an arranger of his calibre in-house, someone who understands both the artistic vision and the practical realities of the players on stage.
“At the end of the day,” Sean says simply, “you just make it good music.”
Measure in Love
Sometimes, the arranging process becomes unexpectedly personal.
Sean recalls while orchestrating Without You from RENT in Concert under an intense deadline for its debut at the Kennedy Center, he carved out time in the early mornings before his daughters woke up for school.
“It was before God even got up,” he laughs. “And I was just… crying.”
The song hit him hard then—and it still does now as he found out when the orchestra performed it earlier this season.
“I remember my wife asking that morning why I was crying,” he says. “And it was just the music.”
If a musical moment can move him that deeply, Sean knows it has the potential to move an audience as well.
“That’s how I know it’s right,” he says.
Make It Symphonic
Some projects come with unique challenges. Take Daft Punk—music written for dance floors, loops, and electronics, not orchestras—which the Victoria Symphony had the challenge to perform at Rifflandia last summer.
“The biggest thing I didn’t want to do was to use a drum set or anything electronic,” Sean explains. “If we were going to do it, it had to be recreated on an acoustic instrument. Because it’s not ‘Daft Punk with the Victoria Symphony’, it’s ‘The Victoria Symphony does Daft Punk’. There’s a big difference in that approach.”
That meant reimagining electronic loops entirely through acoustic instruments, layering things gradually, and creating motion and evolution where repetition once lived.
“How do you keep the energy,” he asks, “but still make it feel like a journey?”
The answer lay in orchestral colour—introducing different sections at different moments, building vertical layers of sound, and allowing the music to breathe and transform. It was about honoring the techno sound of the original, while at the same time honoring the sound of an orchestra and what they do.
“That’s when it starts to sound symphonic,” Sean says. “Not like you just wrote down what you heard—but like you translated it into our world.”
Craft Meets Lightning Bolts
Sean is quick to dispel the myth that all composing is about sudden inspiration.
“People think you’re waiting around for a lightbulb moment,” he says. “That happens sometimes but mostly, I find composition is craft.”
There are only twelve notes to work with, after all. The challenge is how to use them wisely.
Sean draws inspiration from orchestral history, revisiting great composers and studying how they created powerful, enduring sounds.
“How did Tchaikovsky score those moments?” he asks. “What tricks did he use, and how can I apply that to something completely different?”
Even then, knowing when to stop can be one of the hardest parts.
“You can always tweak,” Sean says. “But at some point, you just have to let it go. The pursuit of perfection is really about the pursuit.”
The Smile-Maker
All of this, the planning, the arranging, the early mornings, and careful choices serve a single goal that Sean never loses sight of.
“I think we’re in the smile-making business,” Sean says. “If we’re not making smiles, we’re not doing our job.”
That philosophy extends beyond the stage. Sean speaks openly about listening to audiences and donors, and about breaking down the barriers between performers and listener.
“At the end of the day we’re on the same team,” he says. “We’re here to enjoy great music together.”
It’s a shared experience made richer by care, creativity, and support and one that’s felt every time the orchestra takes the stage, sounding exactly like itself, and absolutely at its best.
And if you leave the hall smiling, humming, or maybe even tearing up a little? Sean would call that a job well done.
This article underscores in bold why the Victoria Symphony Pops Concerts are so inspiring, emotionally moving and completely captivating every time! Thank you, Sean O’Loughlin, for sharing your amazing gift with us here in Victoria. Smiles abound!