Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

There Are No Words

Fri, Jun 6, 2018
Adaptistration People 149
Remember Stanley E. Romanstein, the former Atlanta Symphony CEO? The one who presided over two of the nastiest labor disputes in the orchestra’s history? The one musicians have on a recording delivering a promise after the first labor dispute not to return looking for additional concessions at the next negotiation (but did exactly that)? He’s going

#TBT Make Money, Get Paid

Thu, Jun 6, 2018
Adaptistration People 175
We’re on the cusp of the the 2018 orchestra compensation reports so what better topic to focus on for #TBT than finance? First up, go look up the information your own dam*ed self at the Orchestra Financial Reports resource page (bunch of lazy kids with your Beethoven and Mary Jane…get off my lawn while you’re at

Is There Ever A Time Where Two Wrongs Make A Right?

Wed, Jun 6, 2018
Adaptistration People 010
Every now and then, we get to watch a “don’t do it this way” scenario unfold in real-time. Case in point, the recent Twitter spat between Vancouver Symphony Orchestra (VSO) music director, Bramwell Tovey, and American University Associate Professor CAS – Performing Arts and author of The Artful Manager culture blog, Andrew Taylor. What Happened

Red Pill/Blue Pill: Effective Data Driven Decision Making

Tue, Jun 6, 2018
Adaptistration People 135
I’m back from Houston and the 37th Annual Association of Arts Administration Educators Conference. It was a great deal of fun and the Red Pill/Blue Pill: Effective Data Driven Decision Making session was well received. If the conference solicits session feedback from attendees, I’ll be curious to see what comes in. As a newbie at this conference,

The Composer Diversity Database

Mon, Jun 6, 2018
Six months ago, I wrote about a new online database that made it easier for anyone to discover women composers and their music. At the end of that article, I expressed my intentions: to create a similar database focusing on composers of color and “a potential transformation from the current shared spreadsheet to a more