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.

Another Casualty In the Subscription War

by

The once rock solid foundations of rigid subscription packages are beginning to crumble. Actually, they’ve already crumbled, turned to sand, and the economic model built atop of their revenue streams is sliding into oblivion. Unfortunately, most orchestras haven’t been prepared to replace the revenue from those ticket sales or wean themselves off of using that income to pay for current debts. A few orchestras are even attempting to grasp the sand …

Read more

Hitting Several Big Problems Head On

by
LinkedInCopyPrint

I had the pleasure of receiving a fine email from an Adaptistration reader in Jacksonville, Florida who, in addition to being an artist, also serves as a board member on several chamber music and music education institutions.

Read more

LinkedInCopyPrint

A Done Deal In Dallas

by

Although the members of the “Big 5” are in the midst of wrapping up their talks, the musicians and managers at Dallas finished their contract negotiations just over two months ago.  I learned about how the Dallas talks went from the DSO negotiation chairman, tubist Matt Good.  He said that the players and management came to a tentative agreement back on July 26th as both parties were interested in getting a …

Read more

The Best Outreach Tool Ever Devised

by

Composer Carl Stalling was a genius.  The mountain of work he produced as a studio composer for Warner Brothers cartoons did more to educate and expose children to a wider variety of classical music than all of Leonard Bernstein’s young Person’s Concerts combined. I published an article at The Partial Observer which examines the impact of Carl’s work and how it could still be used today.

The BIG Question In Milwaukee

by

A few weeks ago I published an article which pondered the question of how orchestras could simultaneously cut an artistic budget while simultaneously guaranteeing an equal level of artistic accomplishment.  Since that article, I’ve had a number of emails from very anxious musicians and patrons (not to mention a few managers) expecting an answer. In that article I was referring to the Milwaukee Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Since Philadelphia is …

Read more