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.

Reader Response: Unnecessary Financial Restriction

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One of Adaptistration’s European readers sent in an email in response to the Removing Unnecessary Financial Restrictions article from September 1st.  I always enjoy receiving notes from fellow musicians and orchestra managers from across the Atlantic and this was no exception. The reader pointed out something I didn’t realize happens in Europe all that much; there are for-profit (by our definition) chamber ensembles striking a claim in a world that’s fueled …

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Will The IRS Determine What Orch. Execs. Earn?

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On August 10th, 2004 the IRS issued a News Release that it would begin scrutinizing executive officer compensation practices among non profit organizations.  This initiative has been dubbed the “Tax Exempt Compensation Enforcement Project“. According to the news release, the initiative is a “new enforcement effort to identify and halt abuses by tax-exempt organizations that pay excessive compensation and benefits to their officers and other insiders.”  Throughout the course of the …

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The Negotiation Process: Who Does What

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This installment of the “Negotiation Process” series will examine the answers to a common misconception about who does what during contract negotiations. Next in this series of articles, we’ll take a deeper look into “who” does “what” during the process. Mary Lo from Washington wrote to ask, “Why do the musicians care about all of this if they just have a lawyer doing their negotiating anyway?” Mary has a typical idea …

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An Interview With David Lockington

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I published an interview with David Lockington, the Music Director for the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra at my Neo Classical Column over at The Partial Observer. It’s a great interview that covers issues ranging from stage fright, long range planning, to the future of the industry. You can find the article at:http://www.partialobserver.com/ArticleDisplay.cfm?ArticleID=1218

Violin Turf Wars

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Earlier in the week, I wrote about how the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra may very well have to submit their “Golden Age” collection purchased from Herbert Axelrod to a new appraisal and authentication process. In that article I briefly touched on the how the business of authenticating and appraising rare string instruments (violins, viola, and cellos) works in the music industry.  But today I’ll take a little closer look at that …

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