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.

Taking The Spin Out On Tour

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In an apparent effort to gear up for their upcoming Washington D.C. conference, the American Symphony Orchestra League has been pounding the pavement and beating up the PR drums in efforts to paint a pleasant picture on the current state of the American orchestra business. Not that this sort of behavior is a bad thing for them to do, after all, they are a service organization representing orchestra managers and board …

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TAFTO Reader Response: Follow Up

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Toward the end of last May’s Take Your Friend to Orchestra month initiative, composer Judd Greenstein wrote in to say he was taking 40 friends to an upcoming concert featuring some he composed for the New York Youth Symphony.  True to his word, Judd sent in the following account, As planned, I brought a large group of friends and family with me to the May 29 New York Youth Symphony concert …

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The Business Of Youth Orchestras

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Given how much youth orchestras have expanded in recent years you would think that the demand for classical music is going up.  Unfortunately, that’s not precisely the case in most cities; nevertheless, youth orchestras are becoming a big business.  The biggest budget youth orchestras have budgets larger than a quarter of all ROPA ensembles and they attract managers from big budget orchestras.  And why not?  Those top ensembles pay more than …

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Open Discussion Or Propaganda Laden Drivel

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Just a quick pointer to another good piece from Arts journal blog neighbor Andrew Taylor.  Andrew touches on a subject discussed here at the end of last April about how arts organizations will need to allow a freely moderated discussion between itself and patrons if it hopes to take full advantage of emerging technologies such as weblogs. That simple concept is really at the heart of so much which needs to …

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The New Cultural Superpower

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In the not too distant past, the Cold War superpowers competed on a number of fronts, including cultural accomplishments.  Although classical music functioned in a unique role as a sort of “universal language” spoken by musicians who served as ad hoc ambassadors, both superpowers wanted their ambassador musicians to speak the language a little better than other side. We can thank that cold war mentality for contributing to the birth of …

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