No Confidence Vote In Scotland

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In today’s Soctsman.com they feature an article by Emma Gunby about the rumor that the musicians of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra have taken a vote of no confidence in order to remove their music director.  I don’t claim to know any of the particulars about that situation, but what I’m more interested in is the vote itself. 


Back in early December I wrote an article entitled Empowerment Issues that advocates just such a system for orchestras here in the U.S.  I contacted the orchestra in order to determine if the rumored vote actually holds the orchestra’s management and board accountable to carry through with the results, but oddly enough, both of the individual’s in the public relation’s Department had an email auto reply that said they were out of the office until March 25th and it kindly referred me to the other individual.  March 25th?  I know there’s a time difference across the Atlantic but wasn’t aware of any difference in dates.


Another amusing note: the Scotsman.com slogan is “Scottish news direct from Scotland”.  Were we expecting Scottish news from Finland?  But hey, the NY Times still uses “All the news that’s fit to print”.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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