Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Do I know what makes a masterworks concert a masterworks concert? Of course I do…but why don’t you tell me what you think it means first then I’ll let you know if that’s what I thought. That’s an actual conversation I overheard a few years ago but never really stuck me until I presented at a conference last year alongside Ceci Dadisman. Ceci introduced an element about how arts orgs inadvertently …
The recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) strike is an excellent example of something that demonstrates how much the work stoppage PR landscape has shifted over the past decade. For example, one of the strongest musician talking points is the deleterious impact concessions have on an orchestra’s ability to attract and retain the very best artistic talent. This was a cornerstone of the CSO musician position: If the employer does away with …
On Saturday, 4/27/2019 the board of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) and the CSO musicians ratified a new five-year collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The deal was reached shortly after outgoing Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel became directly involved. Let’s take a close look at the new terms to see what each stakeholder managed to secure. Pension In a nutshell: the employer scored a big win on this term while the musicians …
The longer work stoppages continue, the hotter passions run. It’s a truism that not even the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) strike is exempt. As the CSO work stoppage approaches its second month, tempers are burning hotter than ever. When that happens, it isn’t uncommon to see stakeholders speak first, think later. To that end, one of the primary reasons I migrated this blog’s commenting system to a platform that requires a …
On 4/18/2019, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra Association (CSOA) pulled the trigger on its latest round of cancellations. The result was the rest of April 2019 going by the wayside. In addition to recitals and Civic Orchestra cancellations, subscriptions concerts on April 25, 26, and 27 were cancelled. The most recent negotiations prior to those cancellations failed to produce a new agreement. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the CSOA held to its last, best, and …