Drew McManus

Ever since the inaugural Orchestra Website Review in 2004, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) has been a benchmark in orchestra website design. For the 2008 review, Chicago’s website managed to retain that reputation by preserving functionality as well as introducing a number of new media elements geared toward broadening user experiences…

During every orchestra website review, several orchestras deserve special recognition for how well they satisfied evaluation requirements as well as demonstrating particular originality and creativity for specific website components. As such, the Special Recognition Awards are designed to highlight individual achievements and promote them as benchmarks within the business…

The 2008 reviews witnessed a number of intriguing trends, including a surge in larger budget orchestra scores which allowed them to dominate this year’s Top 10. With a few notable exceptions, this trend continued throughout the rest of the review resulting in 2008 being the first year where the overall rankings favored larger budget organizations…

Between 9/25/08 and 10/8/08, 81 professional orchestra websites were examined and ranked by how well they presented their concert schedule, sold tickets, facilitated making donations, provided organizational information, utilized dynamic content, and on overall content and functionality. On a positive note, the average score was not only higher than any previous year but enjoyed the

Now in its fifth year, The Orchestra Website Review generates a great deal of interest regarding how orchestras of vastly different budget size can be compared on an even playing field. Happily, the answer is very straightforward…