Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Musician Issues

#TBT Get The Most From Your Artist Representation

Thu, Nov 11, 2018
Adaptistration People 053
For whatever reason, I’ve enjoyed a good bit of shop talk with a broader spectrum of colleagues than usual and one topic that came up on several occasions was artist management. Perhaps unsurprisingly, all the individual artists I spoke with felt their representation was underperforming. And while there was no shortage of gripes, there was

The Orchestra Musician Job Offer: “No” Is An Option

Wed, Oct 10, 2018
Adaptistration People 174
It’s no secret that orchestra musician positions are highly competitive, even at ensembles that pay less than living wage. The statistical likelihood of becoming the finalist and receiving a job offer is, at best, dubious. Nonetheless, just because you end up with an offer doesn’t mean you should automatically accept. I’ve lost track of how

Counting The Costs Article Has A Dedicated Home

Fri, Sep 9, 2018
Adaptistration People 044
Ever since the updated version was published in March, 2017 Count The Costs; career cost of ownership for orchestra string musicians has been an enormously popular blog post. So much so, that I decided to convert it to a dedicated microsite at countingcosts.adaptistration.com. The microsite format provides a number of new user experience enhancements, not the least

Women Pioneers Among On-Stage Musicians

Wed, Sep 9, 2018
Adaptistration People 120
Recently, I read an essay by Nancy Fako that recounted her experiences as one of the early women to win a position in the Boys Club brass sections of 1960 era large budget orchestras. It’s a great essay (something I hope will be published here soon) but it made me wonder about similar women musicians

The Cost Of Doing Business

Tue, Aug 8, 2018
Adaptistration People 175
It’s great to see examination of compensation and work expenses within the field expanding, to that end, the 8/9/2018 edition of Ludwig-can.com published an article by Anya Wassenberg that takes a deep dive into the expense end of classical musicians. Another treat is seeing the issues through a Canadian perspective; while most issues are identical
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