Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Granny’s On The Grift? Tell Me It Isn’t So.

Fri, Apr 4, 2017
Adaptistration People 132
There’s a fascinating article by Joe Patti at ArtsHacker that examines the problems related to just how easy it is for employees, even volunteers, to embezzle from nonprofit performing arts organizations. I can’t think of a year that’s gone by since Adaptistration started where there weren’t one or more instances of an employee stealing from

Throwback Thursday: Music Director Compensation

Thu, Apr 4, 2017
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We’re about two months away from the latest installment in the annual orchestra compensation reports so I thought it would be fun to take a quick look back at the music director installment from last year’s series. If you recall, this was one of the biggest bombshells in the entire series history in that it

Where You Think Links Should Open Could Be Influenced By Your Age

Wed, Apr 4, 2017
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One of the regular conversations I have with Venture Platform clients is how to handle the default target for where links open: new tab or same tab. Prior to the mobile device age, a common practice would be to have links pointing to internal website pages open in the same tab while outbound links open

Please Don’t Bait The Composers…Okay, Maybe Just A Little

Tue, Apr 4, 2017
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It started with an innocent Facebook post from composer Jim Stephenson who was wondering if composers of old would have made it in today’s environment and evolved into a trending hashtag on Twitter. https://www.facebook.com/jim.stephenson.946/posts/10154527139678581 It’s a great discussion thread, worthy of a blog topic in and of itself, but long story short, the discussion turned

Updated Data For The Dead White Guy Programming Table

Mon, Apr 4, 2017
Adaptistration People 164
Over the weekend, composer and arts administrator Rob Deemer sent along the latest update to his list of programming data for the 2017/18 season and the ratio of works (both percent and number) of dead-white-guys to living, women, and non-white composers. The latest figures includes an update for the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra figures. See