You Don’t See This Every Day

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We live in interesting times which means we get to see a lot of interesting things. Case in point, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra announced an event on April 30 and May 1 that will not only include members of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra but serve as a benefit for the Met Orchestra Musician fund and relief for Dallas-Fort Worth Musicians.

If someone told me 18 months ago that a large budget symphony orchestra would hold a benefit concert for musicians locked out at a peer orchestra, I would have said they were crazy. Nevertheless, this is where we are.

“We cannot overstate the impact this unprecedented collaboration will have on our members, both financially and artistically, after this long year of cultural famine,” said Brad Gemeinhardt, MET Orchestra Committee Chair. “We are profoundly grateful to the generous donors who are making these concerts possible, to the Board of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, to Maestro Luisi, to the musicians of the DSO and to the entire Dallas music community. Thank you for so warmly welcoming us into your home.”

“The members of the DSO are thrilled to welcome our colleagues from New York. It will be an inspiring and emotional event for all of us; especially performing such a monumental work,” said Alexander Kerr, Concertmaster of the DSO (Michael L. Rosenberg Chair). “We are honored and blessed to be a part of an organization that has been able to perform for live audiences throughout this difficult time and we are thankful to be able to share the experience with our friends, the wonderful musicians of The MET.”

According to the DSO, a video of the performance will be made available on the DSO’s website for free, on-demand streaming in early May.

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

View all posts by Drew McManus | Website

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