It’s Take A Friend To The Orchestra Week!

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The 2013 Take A Friend To The Orchestra (TAFTO) program kicks off tomorrow and this year promises to be another fantastic program with contributions going up throughout the rest of the week.

Take A Friend To The OrchestraSo, between now and tomorrow, get your empowerment on by organizing your own TAFTO related events via social media or good old fashioned get-togethers and go attend some concerts. You can check out nearly a decade of terrific TAFTO contributions at the official resource site; which has contributions categorized by year, author, type (they aren’t always written word!), as well as the lost contribution.

In the meantime, here is the list of 2013′s contributors:

  • Heather Brown: classical music patron and author of The Itinerant Knitter.
  • Ceci Grasso Dadisman: Director of Marketing & PR at Palm Beach Opera
  • Holly Mulcahy: violinist and author of Neo Classical.
  • Scott Silberstein: 6-time Emmy-Award winning producer of broadcast specials and series about theater, dance and music.

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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