Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Is technology really a worthwhile investment for an orchestra? Even with the potential savings in reduced operating costs and creating more efficient rehearsals, you still have to lay out some initial cash to realize that potential. And if you talk to many orchestra managers these days, they probably aren’t excited about the idea of spending their ever-shrinking operating revenue on “new” ideas that will turn the way they work upside down. …
In a move away from the typical heavy duty management topics usually discussed in this web log, I offer the following: While reading the article linked in Arts Journal’s main page yesterday about organists in the UK spicing up church services by working funny little tunes into the regular liturgical selections, I was reminded of a wedding I attended here in the U.S. a few years ago. The groom was British, …
The past year has seen quite a few executive directors move around from one orchestra to the next. So who’s been filling these jobs? Mostly executives from other orchestras. Here’s a quick break down of some of the shuffling (I would love to have the time to draw up a little graphic so you could see the almost cyclic nature of this shuffle): Alabama Symphony: Paul Ferrone, an insider who came …
Third and final in this series of how technology can improve efficiency in an orchestra is using recording technology to its full potential. Recordings are a touchy subject among many in the classical music industry. With taboo topics such as aggressively enforced musician’s union regulations, the high costs of engineering the recording, the ever shrinking market of recorded classical music consumers, and the fact that classical recordings rarely make money, it’s …