Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
In the wake of what seems like an ironic number of Charlie Brown football gag style attempts over the past 20 years, the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra (MSO) appears to be on a strong path toward finally kicking that ball in the form of obtaining their own concert hall. According to a report by Ben Jordan in the 1/10/2017 edition of tmj4.com (Milwaukee NBC affiliate), the MSO is more than halfway to …
Pensions; can’t live with them, can’t avoid a crippling social collapse without them. Recently, the American Federation of Musicians & Employers’ Pension Fund (AFM-EPF) Board of Trustees sent a letter to plan members explaining how the fund has suffered since the economic downturn and their plan for recovery. Unlike other union pension plans, the AFM-EPF is a defined benefit multiemployer pension plan. The organization describes the distinction to a single employer …
Odds are, you don’t have time to reinvent the wheel when it comes to designing social media header graphics. Fortunately, there are several good resources out there providing templates to make the job easier. I published an article yesterday at ArtsHacker that provides links to a popular series of Photoshop templates from graphic designer Pauline Cabera at her website, TwelveSkip.com. If you’re looking to update your organization’s social media graphic design, do yourself …
One of the more sensitive yet pressing topics inside the field is how orchestras should go about creating stronger ties with their community and what does and does not constitute meaningful outreach. To better understand, let’s look at what might be best defined as one of the least effective examples where an orchestra will run an event in what they define as an “underserved” community or neighborhood. That’s usually code for …
Yesterday’s post referencing the Take A Friend To The Orchestra program ended up inspiring me to take a spin through some of my favorite contributions. For readers who have joined since after the program went into stasis after 2013 but for nine years’ prior, the Take A Friend To The Orchestra project featured more than a dozen critics, bloggers, musicians, classical music enthusiasts, and administrators writing about how average patrons throughout …