Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
In the wake of recent events, I am grateful that tomorrow includes a scheduled guest author post from composer Kareem Roustom. I had the pleasure of spending some time with Roustom during his recent trip to Chicago when the Grant Park Music Festival performed his work Ramal. Like so many of the best works coming from new composers, it’s a reflection of our time and draws inspiration from events both profound …
Not unlike many across the country, I became absorbed with current events yesterday so today’s original topic will have to wait. It’s been an absorbing 24 hours and if nothing else, it may provide some with a fresh perspective on yesterday’s post.
If you’re not familiar with the Santa Monica Symphony Orchestra, it’s a community orchestra with an annual budget in the low $100k range. Their concerts are free of charge and apart from a few paid ringers, the musicians are volunteers and students. At the same time, that hasn’t stopped the group from becoming the focus of controversy. Norm Lebrecht has been following developments since July at slippedisc.com and since then, several …
In the wake of the Orchestra Compensation Reports, it’s good to take a step back and realize all the raw information is available to anyone. All that’s required is to locate and download an orchestra’s IRS form 990. Fortunately, we have a resource to make that first tedious step one-click simple: the Orchestra Financial Reports portal. The resource page provides direct links to the respective GuideStar.org page for each orchestra included …
One of the changes to this year’s Orchestra Compensation Reports was a decision to let the transparency process related to obtaining missing compensation information and associated clarification unfold for readers to witness firsthand. As a 501(c)3, an orchestra is required to report information for officers, directors, individual trustees, key employees, and highest compensated employees. Having said that, the information does not always get listed in an organization’s 990 and when that happens, …