Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Commentary

#TBT: Maybe It Wasn’t A Joke After All

Thu, Jun 6, 2021
Recently, a reader reached out with an ironic life imitating art observation that connects the whole Juilliard student protests in response to tuition increases with an April Fool’s post here from 2018. The gag focused on a tongue-in-cheek music conservatory, “Juiliard Institute” (spelling error intentional), that started offering students financial aid with repayment in the form

Colorado Springs Discord Continues

Thu, Jun 6, 2021
The Colorado Springs Philharmonic Orchestra (CSPO) labor dispute continues with little change from where they were months ago. What this means is while other orchestras are tooling back up for performance activity and moving ahead, the CSPO continues to shrink in their rearview mirror. While both sides in the dispute remain in arbitration, there is

More On The Dynamic Impact Of COIVD

Tue, Jun 6, 2021
Usually, these posts focus on how the pandemic generates dynamic expenses and considerations for the organization but today we’re going to focus on musicians; specifically, string musicians. This dynamic cost consideration is really more of a double-edged sword. On one hand, if a string musician was playing considerably less over the pandemic, the need for

Good Problems To Have

Wed, May 5, 2021
The more attention we focus on the processes used to enter the post-pandemic period of concert activity, the better. Case in point, there’s an excellent article from Jim Farber in the 5/24/2021 edition of San Francisco Classical Voice that includes interviews with the CEOs from New York Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony about how both

Back In The In-Person Concert Saddle

Mon, May 5, 2021
Over the weekend, I attended my first in-person orchestra concert in 15 months and the experience was fantastic. To a large degree, the entire experience reinforced what I have been hoping would be the case in that there are opportunities and advantages connected to socially distanced concert events. This was my first time attending a
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