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.

More Canceled Auditions In St. Louis

Thursday, January 27th, 2005 by Drew McManus

Back at the beginning of the January the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra management made the 11th hour decision to cancel the semi final and final rounds of the scheduled French Horn and Double Bass auditions which ignited a firestorm of media attention and a War of words regarding whether or not he musicians of the SLSO were on strike or being locked out. A few days later, it appeared that the …

Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 4

Wednesday, January 26th, 2005 by Drew McManus

The final installment in the series of articles examining the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Internal Review Report will continue where Part 3 finished. After examining issues of valuation and authenticity what’s left are some of the most critical issues related to any musical instrument, how they sound and what the musicians think of them. Issue #3 How they sound As discovered in Part 3, even the NJSO appears to be dancing …

Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 3

Tuesday, January 25th, 2005 by Drew McManus

Part 3 in the series of articles examining the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra Internal Review Report will continue where Part 2 finished, whether or not all of the instruments in the Axelrod collection are authentic. As was examined in Part 2, there were numerous contradictions between the Trustee’s findings, conclusions, and recommendations regarding the value of the collection. More important than value however, is authenticity, one of the cornerstones used to …

Too Much Snow And Cold

Monday, January 24th, 2005 by Drew McManus

Due to the heavy snow in the Northeast it was quite a chore shoveling all the snow from the driveway – Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 3 will be delayed until tomorrow. If you missed Part 1 or Part 2, now’s a good time to catch up. In the meantime, there’s a great article from Sunday’s Dallas Morning News by Scott Cantrell which examines the Dallas Symphony’s …

Keeping Up With The Jones’ In New Jersey Part 2

Friday, January 21st, 2005 by Drew McManus

To continue where Part 1 left off, this article will examine more of the NJSO Internal Review Report to help determine why the NJSO decided to buy the Axelrod string instrument collection. A Review The Short Version The Trustees responsible for the report, Bill Baroni, Alan Danzis, John Forrest, labored to produce a document that is concise and very easy to read; it says exactly what is needed without unnecessary pontification. …