Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Some Recent Comments Spark Good Points

Tue, Jun 6, 2006
In case you’ve missed it, there’s a good comment thread from the June 24th blog about the articles from two music critics; one in Pittsburgh the other in Detroit. The blog has sparked an intriguing exchange between the Detroit music critic, Mark Stryker, a music director, an executive director, and more…

High Tech On The Cheap

Fri, Jun 6, 2006
It isn’t easy living life as a small budget organization. Everything eats into your budget and nothing is cheap, even paperclips add up. One of the largest ongoing office expenses is office productivity software. However, some recent advances in open source products might make your life significantly easier. One such product I’ve been playing around

A Little More Follow-Up On Ticket Prices

Thu, Jun 6, 2006
The Dallas Morning News published an article by music critic Scott Cantrell, easily one of the journalists that makes it onto my shortlist of good critics, which examines some of the Dallas Symphony’s 05-06 ticket sales…

A Tale Of Two Cities & A Tale Of Two Music Critics

Wed, Jun 6, 2006
Two recent articles from music critics in Detroit and Pittsburgh caught my attention this week as they made the strikingly similar observations about their respective orchestras…

How Does New Music Get To The Audience?

Tue, Jun 6, 2006
I’ve received a number of email messages over the past week from readers asking how new music gets from a composer to an audience. As such, in preparation for some upcoming discussions on that subject here and at Polyphonic.org (as well as the current material available at NewMusicBox), I put together a basic primer designed

All About Grant Park

Mon, Jun 6, 2006
As the recipient of 50% of their revenue from government sources, the Grant Park Music Festival in Chicago, Illinois is the closest thing the U.S. has to a government sponsored ensemble. The organization utilizes a unique operational model worth taking a look at and they go a long way toward breaking down some commonly positions

Is There Room In The CBA For Composers?

Fri, Jun 6, 2006
Stemming from the Orchestra Summit 2006 discussion panel I moderated for New Music Box, the issue of including composers in the collective bargaining agreement became in intriguing topic. That topic will be explored in more detail at Polyphonic.org from June 19-23 during their June Virtual Discussion Panel, but in the meantime I wanted to find

Reporting On Ticket Prices

Thu, Jun 6, 2006
Following on the heels of the popular ticket price article from June 1st, 2006 the Wall Street Journal published an article by Jacob Hale Russell on June 4th that reports on the "The Price Is Right. Or Is It?" session from the 2006 ASOL conference. According to the article, it appears my forecasts weren’t far

So How Do You Really Feel About Managers Yuri?

Wed, Jun 6, 2006
“Bah! Management!” That’s a quote from outgoing Baltimore Symphony Orchestra music director Yuri Temirkanov from an interview with Washington Post staff writer, Tim Page. That wasn’t the only thing Temirkanov had to say about the end of his tenure with the organization… The article goes on to quote Temirkanov on a number of issues impacted

The Relevance Of New Music On The Orchestra Of Tomorrow

Mon, Jun 6, 2006
The Partial Observer published an article of mine today which is a transcription of an interview with Frank J. Oteri, editor, NewMusicBox. Frank is a remarkably well thought out individual with some very deep insight on the value of new music and the value of classical music to the American society…
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