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.

How would you enable yourself?

Monday, December 29th, 2003 by Drew McManus

Today’s blog is really more of an exercise in reader participation. I’m currently putting together some criteria that will help develop a “self-enabling” web page for classical music patrons. I’m looking for suggestions from readers, both classical music insiders and outsiders, about what should be included. But I can feel you wanting to ask: “what exactly are we trying to enable?” Good question. First we need to define our use of …

Reader Response: Fixing What is Broken

Sunday, December 28th, 2003 by Drew McManus

Adaptistration reader Robert in DC wrote in over the holiday to take issue with my analysis of Michael Kaiser’s speech to the ICSOM annual conference. Robert disagrees with my suggestion that instead of focusing on primarily playing in schools, orchestras need to bring families across all demographics to orchestra concerts. Specifically, Robert disagreed with my recommendation to increase the number of free concerts an orchestra schedules throughout their season. To counter …

Is history repeating itself in Detroit?

Friday, December 26th, 2003 by Drew McManus

Well one day after I ran the 12/23/03 blog anticipating that the executive director opening at the Detroit Symphony Orchestra would be filled by an executive from an ASOL member orchestra, I read a quote from the DSO board chairman in an article from the 12/24/03 issue of the Detroit Free Press. The article’s author, Mark Stryker, reports: “[DSO board chairman] Jim Nicholson said he was moving swiftly to replace Kang …

When exclusivity is a bad thing

Tuesday, December 23rd, 2003 by Drew McManus

In my mind the term exclusive usually conjures up a positive image. Unfortunately, when I think of the orchestra industry I think of exclusivity in a negative context. What I’m talking about is the absolute control the American Symphony Orchestra League (commonly referred to as “the League”) exerts over the training, hiring, and professional development of orchestra executive and middle managers. You can read more about this in my Orchestra Leadership: …

The new “Age of Convergence”

Saturday, December 20th, 2003 by Drew McManus

One of the greatest benefits of the Internet Age is the ability for individuals to cross paths that would have normally never known each other. This new “Age of Convergence” allow individuals to share and develop ideas that mature from their initial stages to reasoned doctrine in less time than ever before. One of my passions is history. I firmly believe in that old adage “Those who fail to learn from …

Read moreThe new “Age of Convergence”

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