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.

Is All Of This Really Interesting

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A few days ago, Greg Sandow presented a scenario and posed a good question regarding whether or not the average patron would be interested in all of the non artistic issues within their local orchestra.  In particular, he was wondering if a concert review of a last minute change in repertoire (which as a result increased the cost of the performance) should be worth mentioning in a concert review, I’ve been …

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Nashville Symphony’s Music Director Passes Away

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I received the sad news yesterday that the Nashville Symphony’s long time music director, Kenneth Schermerhorn passed away early at the Vanderbilt Medical Center on Monday, April 18th, 2005.  Maestro Schermerhorn led the Nashville Symphony for 22 years and oversaw everything from the organization filing for bankruptcy in the 1980’s through their recent grand accomplishment of commencing construction on their new $120 million dedicated concert hall which is named for the …

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Is FOX Trying To Make Classical Music Relevant?

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As odd as it may seem, some of the most intriguing signs that classical music isn’t entirely removed from the cultural consciousness are coming from the FOX television network.  In an episode of their sitcom Malcolm in the Middle they included classical music as an integral part of the story line. Last night’s episode had the show’s title character, Malcolm (a teenage academic genius), enroll in a music appreciation class at …

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Searching For The Holy Grail Of Job Satisfaction

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Although the orchestra business faces a great deal of uncertainty in the upcoming years, there’s one problem which doesn’t show any signs of abating; job satisfaction among musicians. Several articles here at Adaptistration have touched on this subject before, most notably one from March 16, 2004.  However, there was a good article in Ilkka Talvi’s blog from a few days ago entitled Happier Artists, which examines the problem from a unique …

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