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.

The Best Orchestra Website Is In Chicago

by

After the dust settled from the evaluation process, it was clear the winner was the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. They didn’t win because they’re one of the “Big five” orchestras or because they have a big budget, there were plenty of big budget orchestras that received low scores ( {cough, cough} New York {cough} L.A. {cough} Pittsburgh). They won because they designed the core of their website from the right point of …

Read more

1st Annual Adaptistration Orchestra Website Review

by

What makes a good orchestra website?  Is it pretty pictures, a nice layout, or color scheme that makes you feel warm and comfortable? All of those things are worth considering at some level but they’re also subjective. An orchestra website should focus on two basic principles that are not subjective, one major and the other minor: generating revenue and disseminating information… Given the industry-wide fall off of subscription ticket sales the …

Read more

Looking At Seattle From A Different Point Of View

by

By now, most folks inside the classical music world have heard about what’s going on at the Seattle Symphony Orchestra (SSO).  But in case you haven’t beep keeping up, here’s the synopsis: the SSO made the decision to not renew 20 year veteran concertmaster Ilkka Talvi’s contract for the 2004-2005 concert season. Since the SSO announced the decision there have been a few articles appearing in the local Seattle newspapers discussing …

Read more

Mediocre Sex

by

Ok, the headline was a lure.  What I’m talking about is using sex to sell mediocre musicians playing music that would aspire to be called mediocre. I published an article today in my Neo Classical column at The Partial Observer that examines how cross over and selling classical music with sex can sometimes go well and sometimes go very, very bad (think “Bond”). From a manager’s point of view, these are …

Read more

How Do You Get On The Board?

by

In the wake of the Columbus (OH) Symphony Orchestra board chair resigning due investigations by the SEC, Connie from Columbus wrote in to ask: “How do people get on an orchestra board?” What a great question. The answer has been the subject of numerous books, scholarly papers, and articles for the past century. But before I digress, I’ll do my best to provide an academic answer (special thanks to a few …

Read more