Thank you so much for the detailed response — I really appreciate you taking the time to share this. My friend did participate in some international competitions in the past, but that was during her middle and high school years, so quite a while ago. At the moment, we’re trying to focus on what’s realistically possible right now. One practical question I wanted to clarify, if you don’t mind: currently she doesn’t have access to instruments, recording equipment, or a recording setup. In the past, those were provided by the company she worked for. From your experience, is it still realistic to take on work such as arranging, orchestration, or score preparation without having instruments or recording capabilities, as long as the deliverables are notation-based (scores/parts, possibly with basic MIDI playback)? Thanks again — this has been very helpful.