Yale, Yale, Yale

The music business is aflutter with Yale’s recent announcement that it’s graduate music program will be tuition free. Some people claim this is good for the orchestra business and others claim it’s only going to hurt. The Partial Observer published a piece of mine today which examines how the Yale gift will likely impact the orchestra business and classical music.

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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2 thoughts on “Yale, Yale, Yale”

  1. You are correct Matt, “auditing process” should read as “auditioning process”. Funny, I had two musicians read it before it was published and neither of them picked that out. Just goes to show how easily the brain processes information to conform with what it’s already familiar with!

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