And You Thought The AFM Was Tough
Mon, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
You’ve probably read about the 2/28/2010 “incident” at Italy’s famed Pantheon where employees stopped a concert before it was over because it was closing time (thus prompting musician and audience ire). The incident embarrassed the Italian government enough that it ultimately prompted Italian Culture Minister Sandro Bondi to issue an official apology to the Russian
Venture Project Update: Big News For Small Budget Groups
Fri, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
From the very beginning, The Venture Project has been focused on serving as a paradigm shift in the way many performing arts organizations improve marketing, revenue, and outreach performance. To that end, the overall cost has been an integral component in that process but the reality is that the existing lowest price point was best
Reveling In Microsite Goodness
Thu, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
As promised at the middle of last month, the new official resource site for the Take A Friend To The Orchestra program is up and running. The virtual ribbon was cut last night and you are now free to stop by and stay awhile. I’m very pleased with how this microsite turned out and like
The French Are Not As Forgiving
Wed, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
Dan Wakin’s article in the 3/3/2010 edition of the New York Times does an excellent job at reporting on the Moscow State Radio Symphony Orchestra’s working conditions. According to his report, the musicians earn $40 per concert with no per diems and a number of the musicians go on record talking about unsatisfactory working and
Ouch. My Pride.
Tue, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
Over at Proper Discord, one of my posts from 2004 made it to the #5 position in the list of “30 things that won’t save classical music.” Proper Discord’s author asserts “Classical music doesn’t need saving and the only thing that will increase its reach is for the people involved to do their jobs better.”
Dead Cat Bounce
Mon, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
For those unfamiliar with the expression “Dead Cat Bounce,” it comes from the world of finance as a way to describe “a temporary recovery from a prolonged decline or bear market, after which the market continues to fall (source)” – even a dead cat will bounce if dropped from high enough. This phrase came to
Who’s Minding The Score?
Fri, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
It’s official, there is now a comic strip dedicated to the insanity we call the orchestra business. Who’s Minding The Score? will be published (more or less) every Sunday and you can keep track of the satirical goodness at: https://adaptistration.com/toons. The newest toon goes live this Sunday, 3/7/2010 and we’ll be adding supplementary content to
The Pros And Cons Of Cultural Edu-Care
Thu, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
Inspired by furniture retailing giant IKEA, Holly Mulcahy posted an article over at Neo Classical about the potential merits of orchestras incorporating child edu-care centers along the same lines as IKEA’s Smaland centers. For those unfamiliar, Smaland is a supervised play area where parents can leave children while they wallow in me-centric shopping time. She
Join The RSS Love
Wed, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
For reasons yet to be determined, Adaptistration has enjoyed a nice spike in RSS feed subscriptions over the past few weeks. This heady leap made me realize that I rarely promote all of the useful RSS options readers have available to follow posts, comments, and comment threads; as such, there’s no better time than the
When Is The Philadelphia Orchestra Not The Philadelphia Orchestra?
Tue, Mar 3, 2010
by Drew McManus
Most folks have likely noticed the news about the Philadelphia Orchestra musicians accepting pay and hiring freezes for most positions along with some hefty pension concessions. The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Peter Dobrin reports on those concessions in an article from 2/27/2010. In and of itself, there’s nothing remarkable here; the Philadelphia players are mirroring what their
