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.

An Interview with Marianne Lockwood Part II

Thursday, January 22nd, 2004 by Drew McManus

Welcome back to Part II of our interview with Marianne Lockwood, the Executive Director for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. Budget Issues With an annual budget of $4.3 million dollars, St. Luke’s is a mid-sized orchestral organization. Like many organizations, they try to have a small positive balance at the end of their fiscal year. Marianne indicated that St. Luke’s must have a 1% surplus at the end of their …

An Interview with Marianne Lockwood Part I

Wednesday, January 21st, 2004 by Drew McManus

Listening to her voice over the phone, you’d never guess that you were talking to a cultural warrior. Her British accent flows with a composed, steady pulse that gives it a maternal quality. At the end of 2003, I had the pleasure to talk with Marianne for a few hours discussing her tenure as executive director for the Orchestra of St. Luke’s. I became interested in St. Luke’s and their success …

Comparing Orchestra In-School Programs Part II

Tuesday, January 20th, 2004 by Drew McManus

To continue from where we left off in Part I, this is second half of a comparison of the efficiency and effectiveness of in-school programs from two orchestras: the Brooklyn Philharmonic and the Richmond (VA) Symphony. In Part I we heard from the education directors of each orchestra and in this part we will hear from orchestra musicians about how they view their programs. Although listening to what the Education Directors …

Comparing Orchestra In-School Programs

Monday, January 19th, 2004 by Drew McManus

Ok, you hear me verbally beating up on orchestra in-school programs quite a bit in this blog. However, that doesn’t mean I feel that in-school programs should be completely eliminated. On the contrary, I believe that in-school programs are a necessary component of a much broader overall education and outreach program. That being said, I apply the same standards of efficiency for these programs as I do for all orchestra initiatives. …

The power of blogging

Sunday, January 18th, 2004 by Drew McManus

One of my adult piano students tipped me off to a recent episode of Meet the Press, where one of the discussion topics was the effectiveness of blogs in politics. Although I missed the episode, I did visit the Meet the Press web site and dug up some of their articles about blogging. In particular, there were two good articles: Business pros flock to Weblogs & Finding support online Here’s a …