Year: 2020

Time For The Second Course: Post-COVID Curtain Speeches

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Tuesday’s post turned into an expanded conversation on my Facebook wall and while some of the discussion tilted toward the overall “like/dislike” perspective of curtain speeches, the rest of the discussion focused on how those speeches should unfold during post-COVID events. A number of orchestra execs weighed in on the conversation as did my blogging colleague Joe Patti, who went the extra step of posting his own article on this topic …

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Turn Portrait Images Into Landscape

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Over the weekend, I posted the following rant about portfolio aspect ratio images on Facebook: PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT When getting PR photos, please insist the photographer shoot in landscape aspect ratio, not portrait. Posted by Drew McManus on Thursday, July 9, 2020 Given that it’s always a good thing to balance a rant with something productive on the same topic, I decided to create a free Photoshop template that provides one method …

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Food For Thought: Post-COVID Curtain Speeches

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I want to toss out a short academic exercise in the form of thinking about how the ubiquitous curtain speech will fit into post-COVID concerts. Even before the shutdowns, curtain speeches were pushing the envelope of ticket buyer patience and starting to have a negative impact on the overall concert experience. At the same time, we all know why they exist. Those reasons will only be exacerbated in the wake of …

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State Of Employment Poll & Review July 13 – July 19

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Results remained steady this week and while there were no major changes in employment status, that doesn’t change the fact that according to respondents, it’s clear that orchestra staffers and musicians continue to move toward higher ratios of under-employed and unemployed statuses. Weekly Report Administrators continued to experience continued movement in existing directions. There was a slight uptick in the ratio indicating they were working or being paid at their regular …

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Top-Tier Musician Compensation For 2020 Is Skipping A Season

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Each year, we take some time to examine base musician compensation levels at the top eight highest paying orchestras. But thanks to the impact COVID-19 is having on orchestra collective bargaining agreements (CBA), we’ll need to postpone this installment a year. Unlike executive, music director, and concertmaster figures examined in the annual compensation reports, these wages are determined years in advance by way of collective bargaining agreements. As a result, instead …

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