Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Knowing When To Quit

Mon, Jun 6, 2008
The 6/19/2008 edition of the Wall Street Journal published an article by Janelle Gelfand (the Cincinnati Enquirer music critic) that asks whether or not this is truly the end of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO). Currently, the CSO executive board continues to rebuff calls for mediation, has fired the staff (although executives continue to work

Grant Park Take A Friend Concert Review

Sun, Jun 6, 2008
The second of the Grant Park Music Festival’s Take a Friend to the Orchestra concerts went over wonderfully. The weather simply couldn’t have been better and just like Wednesday evening’s concert, the park was filled to capacity (12,000) with a few thousand more spilling over to the walkways and adjacent grassy areas. This performance featured

Take A Friend To The Grant Park Orchestra Act 2

Sat, Jun 6, 2008
Tonight is the second of two Take a Friend to the Orchestra (TAFTO) concerts at Chicago’s Grant Park Music Festival. Today’s event features a pre-concert CoffeeTalk discussion starting at 6:15PM CT (concert begins at 7:30PM) and located at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion Choral Hall on the east side of the Pavilion. The pre-concert event (not

NPAC 2008: The Good, The Not-So-Good, And Everything In-Between

Fri, Jun 6, 2008
Following yesterday’s post which focused on blogging related issues at the 2008 National Performing Arts Convention (NPAC), I wanted to take a moment to put together some of my thoughts and observations on the rest of the conference…

Grant Park Event Wrap-Up

Thu, Jun 6, 2008
Last night’s Take a Friend to the Orchestra event by the Grant Park Orchestra was a great deal of fun. Even amidst very non-June weather, the orchestra played wonderfully to a crowd of approximately 12,000. The post-concert Talk Back event attracted around 120 patrons (with thousands more lounging in the lawn seats as daylight lazily