Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
I’ll be the first to admit my good fortune when it comes to having and insider’s view into some of my wife’s projects. One of the latest is a brand-new violin concerto written for her by award winning film composer, George S. Clinton. The concerto is unlike anything I’ve encountered; while it’s a formal violin concerto, it’s purposefully written in the style of an epic western film score. Consequently, George and …
The Institute For Composer Diversity (ICD), which evolved from the Women Composers Database project, released their initial 2019-2020 season report. The report tracks the overall number and percentage of masterworks series works from women composers and composers of color. The online report provides concise datasets that illustrate each orchestra’s percentage and number of works in total season along with their League of American Orchestras group number. Since we’re neck-deep in 2019-2020 …
My web development agency is currently putting together the promotional website for George S. Clinton’s new violin concerto, The Rose of Sonora, written for violinist Holly Mulcahy. We’ve been talking about the different user profiles of site visitors and one of those groups is what I call “artistic deciders.” This includes anyone responsible for programming, such as conductors, CEOs/Executive Directors, and VPs/Directors of Artistic Administration. While I’ve talked to a number …
Brace yourself, we’re veering a bit off topic today and chatting about adapting traditional content that when seen through the lens of contemporary sensibilities clearly crosses the “not cool” line. Case in point, the popular holiday pops song Baby, It’s Cold Outside. Years before the #MeToo movement gained traction, Baby, It’s Cold Outside started gaining attention thanks to lyrics that may have been acceptable in 1948, but 70 years later, are …
When it comes to how orchestras structure earned income by way of fee-based performance activity, not all agreements are created equal. Interestingly enough, this is one of the few areas within arts administration that share far more with the artist side of the labor equation than not because in the end, the shared goal is making sure performance-based revenue meets or exceeds minimum revenue goals. For example, it doesn’t matter if …