Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Recently, my wife posted a note on her Facebook wall that garnered a great deal of feedback: What’s genuinely interesting is the range of perspectives coming in; some believe it applies to a specific stakeholder group while others take an inward view. Then there are those that adopt a more empathetic approach and look at it from the point of view of a new or infrequent ticket buyer. For my money, …
I always love it when Joe Patti doesn’t hold back on a topic and he really opened up on one near and dear to me: predatory arts org internships. He examines an internship environment that was so caustic, it caught the attention of the L.A. Times and he brought everything together in the best possible way: As business journals try to analyze the motivations behind the current Great Resignation, it would behoove the theater world to note …
Right before the compensation report week, we examined how Juilliard Students were protesting tuition hikes and since then, the situation has exploded. The New York Times and Rolling Stones both covered the story along with sector-specific outlets like Inside Higher Education. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the school’s administration has kept to a tight list of talking points but thanks reports in the aforementioned outlets, it became clear that they weren’t afraid to use …
Getting a music degree from a name brand conservatory or school of music is mind-numbingly expensive. Investing in this type of career carries more risk now than I can remember and given the amount of debt students absorb chasing those degrees, it wasn’t unusual to see them do the comparative math and opt to take a year off over the pandemic. Now that things are starting to get back up and …
While cautious optimism is paving the road ahead, it’s worth remembering that there is no shortage of stakeholders returning who have been out of loop long for quite some time. Consequently, there could be instances of frustration flare ups after the initial warm and fuzzies surrounding being back. In order to deal with that when it happens (not if), it’s worth taking a moment to prepare so the emotion doesn’t hit …