Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Since launching Venture Arts Incubator* last July, a number of applicants have discovered that coming up with solid idea is sometimes harder than they initially imagined. At the same time, there have been some genuinely inspired ideas as well but some recent conversations with colleagues have inspired me to begin compiling a list of business ideas that we already believe some degree of need exists but has yet to see a …
Just when it looked like it might be safe to dip a toe in the waters of airline travel, a recent incident involving the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and flutist Jessica Schmitz at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport should bring some old fashioned Jaws level anxiety back to the process. Norman Lebrecht detailed Schmitz’s account in SlippedDisc article from 10/4/2015 and it is a genuinely stomach wrenching account involving what appears to …
We have two new entries in our list of mid to large budget orchestras with expired agreements that managed to ratify a new contract without resorting to a work stoppage: The Florida Orchestra and Milwaukee Symphony. Florida Orchestra A new three-year agreement begins reversing several rounds of concessionary agreements with annual improvements in base musician wages and number of weeks per season. 2015/16 26-week season (four half weeks at 75% scale) …
Among the wave of trends following the economic downturn, moving performance events outside traditional venues is among the more popular. Groups are practically tripping over themselves to set up performances in coffee shops, bars, shopping malls, street corners, mass transit stations, and schools. You’ll even find groups using Semi Trucks, barges, and gargantuan circus tents but in the rush to get out of the concert hall, it is becoming increasingly common …
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) becomes the latest group from our list of mid to large budget orchestras with expired agreements to reach a settlement. The rumor mill was rife with fodder about a potential showdown over the musicians’ defined benefit pension but when the dust settled, the retirement benefit ended up with an improvement. Terms of the new three-year agreement will be enacted retroactively to 9/13/2015 and includes modest increases …