Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
If you have any friends or colleagues in the Dallas Symphony Orchestra (DSO) I highly recommend you start following them closely on social media. The DSO is one of the handful of orchestras getting back into the hall for performance activity. Perhaps unsurprisingly, musicians and staff have been posting firsthand accounts across social media of what that actually looks. The result is a fascinating glimpse into what sorts of precautions are …
The 2020 Orchestra compensation reports are coming out next week so between now and then, it’s worth taking a quick look at how past recessions have impacted compensation. Simply put, there are no shortage of lessons to learn. When taking a look at the most recent long-term averages for executives, music director, and concertmaster compensation it’s not difficult to see exactly when the housing bubble downturn impacted trends. Music director and …
Results continue to reinforce established trends that see stakeholders just over a quarter of orchestra stakeholders indicate they are still working and/or being paid their regular salary. The remaining majority continue to slowly transition from reduced compensation to some form of uncompensated employment status. Weekly Report For the most part, Administrators experienced steady response ratios. The overall percentage of those indicating they are still being paid at regular full time or …
More than 350 New England Conservatory (NEC) alumni have signed a letter addressed to the school’s president, Andrea Kalyn calling out the university for failing to acknowledge what they define as its role in “reproducing the social conditions it claims to abhor.” It is time for the Conservatory’s leadership to be courageous in addressing its history and sustained role in promoting the purported supremacy of Eurocentric musical traditions. This history has …
Following yesterday’s article that referenced per-service and salary-based musician employment, a number of readers reached out asking about the difference. To that end, I’m certainly guilty of assuming too much from time to time and this is decidedly one of those issues that can be very confusing if you aren’t already familiar with the distinction. What’s A Service? Within the context of professional orchestras, a service typically consists of one rehearsal …