Connie Etemadi
Image Credit: Arda Turhan
In the high-stakes, high-pressure world of network television production, time is the one commodity more valuable than any other. For a composer tasked with scoring a serialized, hour-long drama, the creative process is compressed into a relentless weekly cycle.
Each episode demands a tremendous volume of original music, often between 20 and 40 minutes, all of which must be conceived, composed, orchestrated, recorded, and delivered against an unforgiving broadcast clock. It is a crucible that demands not only artistic talent but also logistical precision and profound technical expertise.
In this environment, the composer’s role has evolved from that of a solitary artist to a strategic manager of a complex creative and technical pipeline. Few embody this modern paradigm more completely than Arda Turhan.
Across the 2024–2025 season, he managed the complete end-to-end TV scoring pipeline for two of television’s most iconic procedural dramas, Law & Order and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. His responsibilities encompassed every critical phase of production—from the initial spotting sessions with producers to sketching mock-ups, orchestrating every cue, preparing meticulous click-scores for recording sessions, and delivering the final, polished parts for the orchestra.
This comprehensive mastery of episodic television workflows is remarkable on its own, but it tells only half the story. Concurrently, Turhan was composing and integrating the fully adaptive, non-linear score for the 2D action side-scroller game, One-Thousand Cuts, a project that required a fundamentally different creative and technical skillset.
This dual fluency marks Turhan as a uniquely versatile figure in contemporary media music. An orchestrator at the legendary Mike Post Productions, he has served as the sole orchestrator and an additional composer on Law & Order Season 24 and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit Season 26.
His portfolio also includes lead composer credits on the aforementioned game and the short films Deep Dish Dimples, Vlada Lodesk’s This Is Home, and My First Date. With a Master’s Degree in Music Scoring for Visual Media from Indiana University and a Bachelor’s in Classical Composition from Bilkent University, his work is built on a foundation of rigorous formal training.
The discussion delves into his professional journey, emphasizing the detailed craft of composing and orchestrating for television, while highlighting his ventures in interactive media to showcase the distinct yet progressively merging approaches in contemporary scoring. Amidst an industry marked by continual evolution, Turhan’s proficiency in managing both linear and interactive processes reveals a comprehensive grasp of music’s core role in storytelling, irrespective of the platform.
Managing the pipeline
To successfully navigate the demanding schedule of network television, a composer must be as much a project manager as an artist. The sheer volume of music required for two weekly hour-long dramas necessitates a workflow built on rigorous organization and adaptability.
For Turhan, this means balancing meticulous planning with the flexibility to react to the unpredictable nature of production. “Keeping things organizationally tight was always key for me,” he states. “I always have an electronic calendar on my phone, planning my entire day.”
“Of course, no matter how tightly you plan things out, you can’t control every aspect of production.” This disciplined approach is the bedrock that allows creativity to flourish under pressure, ensuring that logistical hurdles don’t derail the artistic process.
The production calendar is a fluid entity, with deadlines and deliveries shifting almost daily. This reality requires a proactive and collaborative mindset, where the music department must absorb delays from other areas of production to keep the overall schedule on track.
The key is to engage with the material at the earliest possible moment and to recognize that scoring is an integral part of a larger team effort. “The goal was always to start working on a show as soon as we received a rough cut, and I think I adhered to that well,” Turhan explains.
“Whenever there’s a delay in production, you pick up the slack. At the end of the day, TV production is always a team effort, and you want the people you work with to feel as comfortable as possible.”
The spotting session
Image Credit: Arda Turhan
The foundation of any score is laid during the spotting session, a collaborative meeting where the creative team decides the placement and function of every musical cue. It is here that the director’s vision is translated into a musical blueprint.
For Turhan, these sessions are a dynamic and engaging part of the process, offering the first glimpse into an episode’s narrative and emotional landscape. “Spotting sessions are always fun because you’re essentially seeing the episode for the first time,” he says.
“For us, it would always be Mike Post, the lead composer, Andrew Birkhimer, the mixing engineer, and me, the orchestrator and additional composer, watching together.” This initial viewing is a critical diagnostic phase, where the team identifies the key moments that require musical support.
The process is inherently subjective, involving a nuanced dialogue about narrative and subtext. The goal is to determine not just where music should be, but why it should be there, leading to spirited debates that refine the score’s purpose.
“There’s always more than one way to tell a story, and spotting can be rather subjective,” Turhan notes. “It’s not uncommon for us to argue about where to get in or even if a cue should be played at all.”
“Whether you’re going to use a certain device or theme in the episode is also decided during the session and then gets reworked again and again during sketching and orchestration.” These discussions are vital, ensuring every musical choice is deliberate and serves the story in the most effective way possible.
Sketching mock-ups
In today’s production environment, the orchestral mock-up has become an indispensable tool. Before incurring the expense of a full recording session, composers must present a highly realistic digital simulation of the score for approval.
This requires a deep understanding of both traditional orchestration and the nuances of virtual instruments. The evolution of sample library technology has been a game-changer, particularly in the fast-paced world of network television.
“We rarely do live orchestral recordings on network TV anymore outside of Main Titles because of how much better the technology has gotten,” Turhan explains. “We still use full orchestral sounds, and they keep getting better and better; it’s just that they happen to mostly be created using virtual instruments with a soloist or two on top.”
This shift has made the composer’s skill in digital production as important as their ability to write for a live ensemble. This technological evolution has created a hybrid discipline where composers must be fluent in both digital and acoustic worlds.
The ability to create a convincing mock-up that captures the intended emotional weight of a scene is paramount. That digital creation must also be practical to translate to a live orchestra when the opportunity arises.
“There are some key technical differences between digital and live orchestration,” Turhan states. “When you’re working as a modern orchestrator, you have to be good at both, no matter what.”
Orchestrating cues
Image Credit: Arda Turhan
The process of orchestration transforms a composer’s approved sketch into a living, breathing score for a full ensemble. It is a task that requires both technical precision and artistic sensitivity, breathing life into the harmonic and melodic framework of a cue.
For Turhan, the opportunity to work with a full orchestra remains one of the most rewarding aspects of the job. “When you have the budget for a full orchestra, it’s always the most fun,” he says.
“You work on the piece for days, months, or even years, depending on the scale, and watch it come alive.” On Law & Order and SVU, this process begins with a foundational sketch, which is then meticulously built out.
This translation from a digital sketch to a full score is where the orchestrator’s craft truly shines. It involves not just assigning notes to instruments but also shaping the texture and harmony to realize the composer’s vision fully.
Turhan views this as a narrative process in itself, akin to expanding a screenplay into a detailed novel. “I always think of orchestration as writing a novel from a script,” he reflects.
“You know which character is going to end up where, but you still have to write how they get there. I love both orchestrating and composing, and I’m fortunate enough to be able to do exactly that in front of millions of viewers every week!”
Accuracy under pressure
The relentless pace of network television production leaves no margin for error. Delivering scores for two shows each week involves managing an immense amount of musical content and technical data, making time the most critical and unforgiving constraint.
“Time is always the first and the final enemy,” Turhan states. “We’ve got two shows to deliver every week, which equates to 85 minutes of TV and 45 minutes of music on average.”
“That’s a crazy amount of not only music but also files to be delivered.” This sheer volume demands a highly organized system and a clear sense of priorities to ensure that the most critical elements receive the necessary attention.
Under such tight deadlines, a rigorous quality control process is essential. Not all tasks carry the same weight, and the team must strategically allocate its time to focus on the elements that will have the greatest impact on the final broadcast.
“Things like the final mix or the click track have to be checked a dozen times by multiple people before you send them out,” Turhan explains. “Things that will not air or be recorded immediately can get by with a handful of checks.”
“There’s very little room for error under the best of circumstances, but not all tasks are equally pressing.” This pragmatic approach to workflow management is key to maintaining high standards of accuracy and readability.
Communicating the vision
During a recording session, clear and efficient communication is paramount. The composer must convey their artistic intent to the conductor and musicians using a shared language that is both precise and evocative.
This often involves drawing from a rich lexicon of musical terminology that has been developed over centuries. “The answer is we have a whole dictionary full of mostly Italian and German phrases that every musician learns at school,” Turhan notes.
“More and more are being invented as the need arises, and if the musical dictionary fails you, you can always put notes in the score.” This established vocabulary provides a crucial foundation for translating abstract emotional goals into concrete musical performance.
When the established terminology is insufficient, the composer must be able to provide direction that is quick, clear, and actionable. With studio time being a significant expense, no room for ambiguity or lengthy explanations that could derail the session’s momentum.
“If things are not going the way you want them to during the session, I try to communicate with quick, precise directions,” he says. “Recording sessions can be extremely expensive, and you don’t want to waste any moment confusing your players with drawn-out explanations.”
“These days, orchestral sessions are going online more and more, so I’d say precision is more important than ever.” This emphasis on concise and accurate communication is essential for maintaining the musical vision.
Linear vs. interactive
Juggling the intense, weekly demands of two network television shows with the composition of an adaptive score for a video game requires an extraordinary level of discipline. At the outset of the television season, the workload seemed all-consuming, forcing Turhan to recalibrate his commitments.
“At the start of the season, it would have been unthinkable,” he admits. “We were spending 100 hours a week at the studio with not a minute to spare.”
“For the first time in my life, I asked my game director for an extension, and they were gracious enough to accept it.” The traditional Christmas break in the network TV schedule provided the crucial window to regain momentum on his interactive project.
The two media demand fundamentally different compositional approaches. While television scoring is linear, game scoring must be adaptive, accounting for the unpredictable nature of player choice.
This requires a shift in mindset from writing a fixed piece of music to designing a flexible musical system. “Interactive music can be quite different than linear because you simply have no way of knowing how long a player is going to take during a certain section,” Turhan explains.
“Some may take seconds while some take hours, so everything has to be loopable both as a whole and on a sectional level. It forces me to plan things out very carefully from a musical standpoint.”
A season of growth
Image Credit: Arda Turhan
Overseeing every phase of the scoring pipeline for two major television series while simultaneously developing a complex game score has profoundly shaped Turhan’s workflow and artistic perspective. The sheer volume and intensity of the work necessitated a new level of efficiency.
“Doing all that certainly forced a level of efficiency in my workflow that I thought was impossible until last year,” he reflects. “Thankfully, I was blessed with amazing mentors who guided me and allowed me to reach the pace that I have now.”
This experience has not only honed his technical and logistical skills but has also deepened his conceptual understanding of music. The process of deconstructing and reassembling musical ideas daily has fostered a more architectural approach to composition.
By focusing on the underlying mechanics of how music functions to create emotional impact, Turhan has found a new appreciation for the craft. “I look at music a lot more structurally now,” he says.
“As cold as that may sound, there is a real beauty in it that I can never get bored of!” This structural perspective, far from being cold or clinical, reveals an elegant and endlessly fascinating logic within music.
In an industry increasingly defined by technological disruption and shifting business models, the role of the media composer has become more complex and more demanding than ever before. As demonstrated by the work of Turhan, the modern composer must be a multifaceted professional—equal parts artist, technician, project manager, and systems designer.
His career showcases an expert command of the entire production pipeline, from the nuanced, collaborative translation of a director’s vision in a spotting session and the intricate engineering of a virtual orchestra, to the high-pressure execution of a network television score and the systems-based architecture of an interactive game soundtrack. This unique ability to bridge the worlds of linear and interactive media, of traditional orchestration and digital innovation, positions him not just as a composer for today’s media but as an architect for the narrative experiences of tomorrow.