Thursday News Roundup

It’s been another eventful week. The Boston Symphony Orchestra announced that music director James Levine will be stepping down as of 9/1/2011 but no word on emeritus status while in New York City, the Metropolitan Opera says “Levine intends to fulfill his schedule here for the remainder of this season and in future seasons”…

In Detroit, management and musician representatives went on the radio to talk about the musicians’ binding arbitration offer. Are they spinning their wheels or will this offer find some traction?

In Cincinnati, Enquirer music critic Janelle Gelfand dusts off the topic of orchestras and touring. Is it a dinosaur that doesn’t know it’s extinct or is it more important than ever? Wade in via comment thread at Janelle’s blog post.

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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0 thoughts on “Thursday News Roundup”

    • Not until we get something a little more concrete. Peter’s article is great but it relies entirely on unnamed sources. This isn’t something to toy with and at this point I hope neither side is engaging in the public no comment but privately leaking details game. Until we know something that is verifiable, it is all speculation and do we really need to be playing around with fire at this point in time?

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