Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

High Price Of Tickets Cited Among Greatest Barriers To Attendance

Thu, May 5, 2014
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A big h/t to You’ve Cott Mail (YCM) for sending around an overview of the Culture Track 2014 report from LaPlaca Cohen, which studies the attitudes, motivators, and barriers of culturally active audiences. I’m still wading through the document but one item that should catch your attention in the YCM overview is high price as

Declassified

Wed, Apr 4, 2014
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It isn’t often that I get to talk about some of my more clandestine projects but today is a happy exception; in particular, this project covered the trio of days I was away earlier this month in New York City. And now that Opera America (OA) has announced their Building Opera Audiences Grants recipients, it

More Rhetoric In The Met’s War Of Words

Tue, Apr 4, 2014
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The 04/28/2014 edition of Deutsche Welle published an article featuring an interview with Metropolitan Opera (Met) General Manager, Peter Gelb. The interview was conducted by Gero Schliess and although not terribly long, it turns up the fire on an already heated labor dispute. Gelb’s key talking points include: The need for permanent cuts isn’t due

SDO’s Campbell Is Out But Not Gone

Mon, Apr 4, 2014
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The San Diego Opera (SDO) is one step closer to defusing the self-destruct mechanism triggered by its recently departed executive board members and General and Artistic Director and CEO Ian Campbell. In a 4/25/2014 press statement, the SDO announced that Campbell and Ann Spira Campbell, SDO Deputy General Director (and Ian Campbell’s ex-wife), have been

How To Avoid Getting Caught With Your Pants Down In The Wake Of Neutered Net Neutrality Rules

Fri, Apr 4, 2014
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Big news yesterday on the Net Neutrality front and none of it is any good. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has plans to implement a new set of rules that will allow internet service providers (ISP) to begin charging for different tiers of service; which all but guarantees nonprofits will be doomed to having their

Guest Post: Musician Travel Problem Solving

Thu, Apr 4, 2014
When I first started using Twitter, I was drawn to musicians. I didn’t understand this new platform, but I had learned from experience with Facebook in college that it would take time to understand how best to use emerging social media platforms to promote the organizations I was working with. In the meantime, I knew

The Slippery Slope

Wed, Apr 4, 2014
In the post economic downturn environment, it is all too easy to become the victim of detrimental group-think; musicians are overpaid, board members don’t donate enough, managers should work harder etc. Even though most of us who make a living in the arts know better, it is good to see traditional media sources picking up

There’s a Downside To Success

Tue, Apr 4, 2014
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Simply put, business is booming. Back in January I published an article about the growth going on within The Venture Platform segment of my business and since then, the rate of increase has only picked up; moreover, a similar uptick in non-tech related consulting work kicked in shortly after the New Year. The only downside

SDO Mass Board Exodus But Controversial Exec Remains

Mon, Apr 4, 2014
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Following last week’s board meeting at the San Diego Opera (SDO), several key board members responsible for the initial decision to shut down the company resigned, including SDO Board President Karen Cohn. This doesn’t come as an unexpected surprise but the real curiosity here is the retention of the company’s general and artistic director, Ian

Finding The Perfect Non-Monetary Workplace Perk

Fri, Apr 4, 2014
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One of the mainstays of my traditional consulting work is negotiating individual work agreements; for managers, this usually focuses on executive employment agreements and for musicians, individual overscale agreements and one of the first aspects of that work is to identify non-monetary perks that have variable degrees of value for the client. More often than
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