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.

Finding A Music Director In Kansas City

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In the Sunday, May 23rd edition of the Kansas City Star, music critic Paul Horsley wrote an excellent article entitled Decision Time.  It’s about how orchestras set about selecting a new music director and it focuses on the current music director search being undertaken by the Kansas City Symphony.  It’s a well written article that’s worth your time to read and in the spirit of full disclosure; it includes a few …

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Reader Response: Insufficient Communication

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A frequent reader sent an email pointing out an ambiguity from last Thursday’s article entitled The Downside Of Insufficient Communication.  They pointed out that I failed to mention that the Charleston Symphony orchestra musicians recently accepted a nearly 20% pay cut in order to help keep the orchestra’s finances stable. Although I did refer to the musician pay cuts by mentioning that the Charleston Symphony Orchestra had to institute large cuts …

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An Orchestral Sized Quagmire In Tacoma

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At the beginning of the week, Arts Journal featured an article at Tribnet.com, the Interactive Media Division of The Tacoma News Tribune.  The article, written by Jen Graves, details the disintegration in the seventeen year relationship between the Tacoma Symphony Orchestra and the Tacoma City Ballet. Here’s a quick synopsis of the situation: For 17 of the last 20 years, the Tacoma Symphony Orchetra (TSO) has been contracted by the Tacoma …

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The Downside Of Insufficient Communication

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I’ve done my fair share of complaining on these pages about how difficult it is to obtain information from orchestra managers beyond the typical flow of propaganda style news from Marketing and Public Relations representatives.  Along these lines Art Journal recently featured a Letter to the Editor of the Charleston Post & Courier from the Charleston Symphony Orchestra board President, Ted Halkyard. In his letter he expressed his dissatisfaction with an …

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Non Profit Venture Capital?

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I know, I know, by definition non-profits can’t have venture capital.  That unique form of financing that understands you may not turn a profit at first, but they have faith that one day your product or idea will and big.  These venture capitalists are usually investing in is a new idea or technology capable of opening a new stream of yet untapped market revenue.  So why is it so difficult to …

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