May 2017 – Page 4 – Adaptistration

The Role Of Music Inside Venezuela’s Unrest

Wednesday, May 10th, 2017 by Drew McManus

The 5/4/2017 edition of NPR published an article by Anastasia Tsioulcas that reports Conductor Gustavo Dudamel decision to take a public position on the recent unrest in his native country, Venezuela. In his letter, Dudamel calls on government leaders to cease acts of repression and the cycle of increasing violence that recently resulted in the death of a violinist and aspiring medical professional. My entire life has been devoted to music and …

Do Your Job Descriptions Make Unicorns Weep Tears Of Joy?

Friday, June 29th, 2018Tuesday, May 9th, 2017 by Drew McManus

Vu Le has many, many bones to pick when it comes to the finer points of nonprofit admin job descriptions. He’s been focusing on specific items over the past few years at Nonprofit AF (formerly Nonprofit With Balls), but he recently packed everything together in a single post that includes some new, and highly useful, guidelines. Le includes a paragraph or two to elaborate on each point so by all means, …

Classical Music Isn’t Dying, But The Principal Trumpet Is On Thin Ice

Monday, May 8th, 2017 by Drew McManus

Boston Symphony Orchestra Fourth/Utility trumpet Michael Martin probably doesn’t want to see his brother, New York Philharmonic Principal trumpet Christopher Martin, get killed by way of an underfunded Kickstarter campaign for a new trumpet concerto, but you never know. Michael posted an article about the concerto project at PlayWriteMusic.com that included a cartoon by Philadelphia Orchestra Associate Principal trumpet, Jeff Curnow, the latter of which adopts the Everybody shut up or …

Content Rules

Friday, May 5th, 2017 by Drew McManus

In the wake of their 2017 Content Competition, the Association of Arts Administration Educators (AAAE) asked each of the adjudicators to write an article reflecting on the ideas related to the competition, how they relate to the orchestra field, and main takeaways, particularly for those teaching the next generation of arts administrators. AAAE recently published my contribution at artsadministration.org which reinforces why content is still king. The arts are all about …

The Thinking Person’s Approach To Dealing With Sacred Cows

Thursday, May 4th, 2017 by Drew McManus

There are more than enough sacred cows in this field to go around and if you’ve ever had to go up against one, you know how difficult it is to make headway. Pushback is usually swift and aggressive but that doesn’t mean you can’t think your way through the process. Theoatmeal.com’s Matthew Inman published a wonderfully remarkable post on the sort of thinking that goes into sacred cows, or what people …