String Instrument Cost Of Ownership Sneak Peek

I am all kinds of excited to say that the impending String Instrument Cost of Ownership article is going to be a full blown interactive infographic!

All things being equal, it should be up on Friday or Monday and to give you an idea of what’s in store, here’s a sneak peek at the violin cost of care graphic currently in development. The final version will have more than a dozen elements highlighting costs for common maintenance and repair items with both career and per instance values.

cost of care preview

You can also expect to enjoy a genuinely beautiful infographic. For example, here’s the completed section examining how moving an instrument from one climate to another has on on overall maintenance and repair costs (spoiler: it’s not good).

climate change costs preview

Once the resource is published, I’m sure it will find its way alongside existing items such as the Orchestra Compensation Reports.

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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