Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Last Sunday, I had the pleasure of being a guest on Silence of the Tacets, when trombone players have time on their hands, a video podcast hosted by Vancouver Symphony Principal Trombone, Brian Wendel, and Vancouver Symphony Principal Bass Trombone, Ilan Morgenstern. It was a great conversation with a solid stretch of time to cover a wide range of topics. It’s always engaging to chat with professional musicians who are interested …
Last Friday, we took a look at the labor dispute unfolding at the Colorado Springs Philharmonic (CSPhil). In a nutshell, the CSPhil board decided that after declaring impasse during their recent master agreement reopener talks, they would cancel the union agreement entirely. The only other orchestra to do this was the Louisville Orchestra in 2011. Perhaps unsurprisingly, there’s a good bit of unusual back-story in this situation which begins with the …
In 2011, the Louisville Orchestra had the dubious distinction of becoming the first professional US orchestra to attempt to cancel the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and replace those employees with replacement musicians. It didn’t end well. The orchestra’s executive leadership took a beating in the court of public opinion and the dismissed musicians and their union colleagues across the country managed to hold firm. Along with their supporters, they managed to …
I was all kinds of excited to see the latest post from Joe Patti at ArtsHacker. The title alone triggers one of my biggest pet peeves: Yes, Data Driven Decision Making. But What Data Is Important?. It’s exactly the right question and at the core of a conference session I present on this very topic. Seeing the reference to vanity data was especially nice. The most valuable data for an organization …