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.

Concert Hall Follow Up KC Symphony: REVISED

by

To wrap up the series of concert hall follow up articles, I finally have some news about the final orchestra from the original concert hall study Kansas City.   Unfortunately, the KCS management still declined to participate, but fortunately, the musicians were willing to share some of their developments.  Over the past six months there have been some positive developments.  According to one of the orchestra musicians, the musician representatives have met …

Read more

You Can’t Spell Collaboration without “Labor”

by

Last week, the Philadelphia Inquirer ran an article about a dispute between the musicians of the Philadelphia Orchestra and their board and executive management over the extension of their music director’s contract. Since musician involvement on governance issues is a strong topic here at Adaptistration, I contacted John Koen, a Philadelphia Orchestra cellist and chair of the members committee, to talk to him about the situation. I quickly learned that the …

Read more

A Few Extra Thoughts On “Keeping Score”

by

I recently published an article on my column at The Partial Observer that goes into some further details of the “Keeping Score” documentary that was featured on PBS last week.  But something that’s been itching at the back of mind since I watched the program is how it’s being billed.  According to the interactive multimedia component of the project: “Keeping score is a major imitative aimed at making classical music more …

Read more

Concert Hall follow Up Richmond (VA) Symphony

by

Continuing with the series of concert hall follow up articles, I recently touched base with administrators and members of the Richmond Symphony Orchestra. I asked David Fisk, the Richmond Symphony’s executive director, what sort of progress they’ve made and what they’ve done to include the musicians in the building process since last November. Regarding the orchestra’s involvement in the design process of their new venue, David said, “We are represented by …

Read more

The Best Reality T.V.Is In San Francisco

by

Along with several dozen other writers today, my topic will focus on the PBS special “Keeping Score”.  I had seriously considered skipping over the show as a topic but decided against it it was too good to pass over. Unfortunately, I missed a little bit of the first part but what I saw was absolutely fantastic.  Why this isn’t on one of the three commercial networks is beyond me, it certainly …

Read more