Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Just a quick post today as I’m still playing catch-up after being away for part of last week. Fortunately, quick doesn’t mean insignificant as the topic I want to toss out is related to pensions. In light of the ongoing Chicago Symphony Orchestra work stoppage that hinges on the orchestra’s pension plan, I wanted to point out there is an alternative to traditional defined benefit and defined contribution pension plans: the …
I won’t even pretend to have a comprehensive understanding of how the new tax laws impact a nonprofit’s requirements for valuating and acknowledging donations. Fortunately, Joe Patti recently published an article at ArtsHacker that covers several points of contact that should serve as good places your organization should to begin having these discussions with your accountants and attorneys: Acknowledging Donations Deducting Benefits Be Careful With Donor Advised Funds Acknowledging Other Things …
I’m traveling for work today so just a quick #TBT post by way of a terrific article from recently retired Baltimore Sun music critic, Tim Smith. He recently started a personal blog to use as an outlet for his ongoing music journalism habit (it should definitely be in your bookmark folder) and one of the early offerings is a piece titled Reflections on the crisis at the BSO. The piece offers …
In response to Wednesday’s article about the new housing shared equity program in the San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a number of readers reached out asking about the similar program at the LA Philharmonic I referenced. It’s a straightforward item in the LA Phil’s CBA, Article 13.K: Housing Allowance: On regularly scheduled paydays that follow the close of each payroll period during the Term of this Agreement …
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 …