Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

A Whole Lotta Typing Going On

Tue, Aug 8, 2007
by Drew McManus
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It seems the topics from the past several days have encouraged a number of readers to weigh-in with their own thoughts. More than 30 comments have been posted since last week so if you don’t regularly review recent articles for new comments, you’re missing out…


The most popular topic so far has been the issue of business cards (or lack thereof) with discussions about the growing number of orchestras approaching a work stoppage not far behind. Beyond that, readers have offered their thoughts on everything else including attendance woes in Cincinnati, the tone of San Antonio’s labor negotiations, the slippery slope of reduced artistic expenditures, and concern over the rapid exodus of staffers.

post.jpgIn the case of Cincinnati, the online comment discussion has spilled over to a related Classical Music blog by Janelle Gelfand. There are a couple of particularly good, albeit lengthy, comments toward entry #12 of that thread.

So what are you waiting for? Form those thoughts and warm up those fingers, just don’t forget to check your spelling before hitting the “submit” button…

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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Adaptistration by Drew McManus LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://adaptistration.com/about/terms-of-use-and-permissions/.

PROFESSIONAL DISCLOSURE

Given the author’s position as an arts consultant and technology provider, he does not publish articles examining or focusing on current clients without first obtaining the client’s written permission.

EDITORIAL COMMITMENT

In order to ensure accuracy and provide a comprehensive perspective on any topic, I allow any individual or person officially representing an organization that appears in any Adaptistration article to submit a response which will be published, unedited. Responses are limited to 200 words and must address the issues at hand and the individuals and/or organizations must also be willing to maintain an open dialog for continued discussion.