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 Executive Shuffle

Tuesday, February 3rd, 2004 by Drew McManus

The past year has seen quite a few executive directors move around from one orchestra to the next. So who’s been filling these jobs? Mostly executives from other orchestras. Here’s a quick break down of some of the shuffling (I would love to have the time to draw up a little graphic so you could see the almost cyclic nature of this shuffle): Alabama Symphony: Paul Ferrone, an insider who came …

Efficiency Through Technology: Recordings

Monday, February 2nd, 2004 by Drew McManus

Third and final in this series of how technology can improve efficiency in an orchestra is using recording technology to its full potential. Recordings are a touchy subject among many in the classical music industry. With taboo topics such as aggressively enforced musician’s union regulations, the high costs of engineering the recording, the ever shrinking market of recorded classical music consumers, and the fact that classical recordings rarely make money, it’s …

Efficiency Through Technology: Digital Music

Friday, January 30th, 2004 by Drew McManus

Second in this series of how technology can improve the efficiency an industry that has been described as a “stagnant service industry that benefit[s] very little, in terms of productivity, from technological innovations” is the use of digital music. This is decidedly a hot button topic for many involved in that element of the industry, mainly the orchestra’s music librarians. If you’ve ever been looking for a way to start up …

Efficiency Through Technology: Paperless Operation

Thursday, January 29th, 2004 by Drew McManus

Due to the inherent separation between musicians and staff, most orchestras spend a great deal of resources (financial and time) distributing information to orchestra musicians and maintaining communication. This occurs in the form of printing reams of paper for mailings, memos, schedules, maps, as well as hours and hours of labor to collate and prepare all of these documents for distribution. Much of this could (and should) be handled via digital …

Words To Live By

Wednesday, January 28th, 2004 by Drew McManus

Recently, I wrote about a wonderful book entitled Joe Maddy of Interlochen. During my recent re-reading, I took the time to find a few good excerpts that I’ll share with everyone from time to time. For those of you unfamiliar with Interlochen, it is the largest summer arts education program in the world. Every professional orchestra across the U.S. has at least a few alumni if not dozens among its members.