Appearing On WNYC Today

I’ll be appearing today on WNYC’s Soundcheck with John Schaefer at approximately 2:45p.m. ET today to talk about the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra’s recent decision to sell their collection of rare string instruments…


No doubt, this will be a fascinating discussion and I hope we can fit it all into 20 minutes. If you are in the New York City area, turn your radio dial to FM93.9 or AM820 and even if you don’t live in New York City, you can still listen to the live program online at WNYC’s website. In case that isn’t enough, you can even listen to the segment directly via the program’s embedded audio player below:

As for further discussion about the NJSO’s decision to sell their collection of rare string instruments, the New Jersey Star-Ledger published an article yesterday by Mark Mueller which examines some of the more dynamic aspects of this situation. Mark does an excellent job at providing a good overview of the events surrounding the decision to purchase the instruments right up to the organization’s decision to sell the collection.

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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