Inside the Big Band Score
From lead sheet to ensemble sound: José Pino explored the craft of big-band arranging with students and teachers from the wind department at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Quito, Ecuador, on 2–3 October 2026.
Before a big-band arrangement becomes sound, it begins with decisions: where to place a melody, how to distribute a chord, when to bring voices together and when to leave space between them. For wind players, these decisions shape the music they encounter on the page — and the role they take within the ensemble.
On 2–3 October 2026, José Pino led a two-day masterclass at the Conservatorio Nacional de Música in Quito, Ecuador, at the invitation of Rector Ramiro Guambubuete. Participants were students and members of the teaching faculty from the conservatory’s woodwind and brass departments.
The encounter brought an arranger’s perspective into the education of instrumentalists: an opportunity to consider how an individual part is conceived, how it relates to other voices and what its place in the score reveals about the music.
From lead sheet to full score
Pino’s big-band arranging masterclass follows the development of musical material from a lead sheet into a complete ensemble score. Melody, harmony and form provide the foundation; voicing, orchestration and texture determine how that material takes shape across the instruments.
For woodwind and brass musicians, this perspective has particular relevance. The same melody can acquire a different character when carried by a single instrument or distributed across a section. A chord’s colour changes with its spacing and instrumentation. Understanding those choices gives performers another way into their parts.
The course connects scores with recordings, bringing the written arrangement into relation with its sounding result. It opens up the decisions behind the finished score: what the arranger retained, transformed or developed from the original material.
An arranger’s perspective on performance
An Ecuadorian composer, arranger, multi-instrumentalist and educator based in Zurich, Switzerland, Pino brings his own musical practice into his teaching. His work moves between traditional and contemporary music, jazz and electroacoustic contexts, from solo performance to large ensembles.
This connection between creating and performing is central to the masterclass. Reading a part becomes an invitation to understand the musical thinking behind it. For teachers, that perspective can also inform how ensemble material is introduced and discussed with students.
In Quito, the participation of both students and faculty placed these questions within a shared educational setting. The focus on wind instruments connected the wider subject of big-band arranging with the musicians who give its lines, harmonies and textures their sound.
Bring the course to your institution
Available internationally through La casa de nadie, José Pino’s big-band arranging masterclass is tailored to each host institution’s students, musicians and educational priorities. The Quito encounter offers one example of how the course can focus on a particular department.
The masterclass can be delivered in English, Spanish, German or Italian, with content and duration developed in consultation with the host institution.
Bring a composer’s perspective into your programme. La casa de nadie works with conservatories, universities, music schools, festivals and cultural institutions worldwide to host José Pino’s masterclass.
