Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

An Emotional Bear Trap

Thu, Jan 1, 2008
Joe Patti, my Inside The Arts blogging cohort, posted an absolutely fascinating piece on 1/15/2008 which recounts his recent experience attending the "Learning to Lead" session at the Association of Performing Arts Presenters Annual Conference. Although the post is relatively short, it is chocked full of meaningful observations into the root of negative learning cycles

BREAKING NEWS: Tentative Agreement in Jacksonville

Wed, Jan 1, 2008
The musicians of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra released the following press release at 2:19PM CT announcing a tentative agreement which provides for Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra concerts to resume this week.  (UPDATE: The Jacksonville Symphony Association distributed a press release about approximately 90 minutes after the musician release. It is included at the end of this

We Value Your Option (unless it means changing our plans)

Wed, Jan 1, 2008
Robert Levine, president of the Milwaukee Musicians Association, International Conference of Symphony and Opera Musicians (ICSOM) chairman emeritus, former editor of Senza Sordino (ICSOM’s newsletter), and principal violist of the Milwaukee Symphony [Robert must have an industrial sized business card], posted an intriguing article at his blog about the Jacksonville Symphony negotiations. In his post,

Getting Ahead Of The Relevancy Curve

Tue, Jan 1, 2008
It isn’t as though I keep up with Hollywood award shows but it was infinitely amusing to read that the Golden Globe awards were reduced to nothing more than a prolonged press conference due to the Writers Guild of America strike. At the same time, the topic made me think about awards in general and

Rhetoric On The Rise In Jacksonville

Mon, Jan 1, 2008
After a brief hiatus following the holiday season, the Jacksonville Symphony Association (JSA) and Jacksonville Symphony Players’ Association (JSPA) have resumed their respective public relations campaigns via the nine week long lockout. First up, was an opinion piece published on 1/8/2008 by the Florida Times-Union written by JSA past board chair and current board member,