Michael-D-Simon

In season 5 for the Merida episode (509 I think) we used the bagpipes... I believe they were uilleann pipes and they were magnificent.

One of my favorites was back in season 5 -- episode 509 "The Bear King" (the merida origin story) directed by Geofrey Hildrew. It was probably the most epic one, recalling the huge field battle (and...bagpipes!).

We used the beauty and the beast theme by Alan Menken and the cruella de vil theme by Roger Radcliffe... was fun to incorporate them.

Hard to choose a favorite because there were so many amazing actors... but gun to my head I'd say Gold/Rumple.

In our business you usually can't wait for inspiration to hit, you have to make it hit. For me that's the biggest difference between how I approach music now versus how I did in college. You don't really have the luxury of waiting, in other words. :)

Impossible to narrow it down, but I'll give it a feeble try: of course Mark and Cindy, John Williams, Carter Burwell, Dave King, Ben Folds, Leonard Berstein.... also I have to give a shoutout to my very good friend Doug Rausch and strongly encourage you all to check out his amazing music (prog rock-ish): https://rausch.bandcamp.com/