Have a Hassle-Free Holiday

If your work schedule has been as busy as most over this holiday season take the time to relax a little over the next few days. 


If you want something to occupy your mind think about what I should have included on my “Top 10 list of orchestra related gifts” you could have purchased or received this season. 


Unfortunately, work kept me from putting together a complete list but I’d love to hear about some of the neat gifts your local orchestra is marketing or great ideas you’ve came up with yourself.


Send me an email and let me know.


In the meantime, here’s what I came up with:



  1. The most powerful coffee mug in the orchestra business: The Cleveland Orchestra Coffee Mug
  2. The David Lockington (Grand Rapids symphony Music Director) Bobble Head Doll

 

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.

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