Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

About Drew McManus

Hi. I’M DREW MCMANUS, THE ORCHESTRA INSIDER. I work as an arts consultant in Chicago, IL. I’m the author of this blog. There has never been a better time to be in the orchestra business. Really. About Drew McManus “I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired.” Those were the first words out of an executive’s mouth after her board chair introduced us. …

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Wait…For…It…

lipinski strad

The original idea for today was to officially launch the Orchestra 990 Database Project Kickstarter campaign but thanks to the astoundingly slow process at Amazon Payments, the launch cycle has been pushed back a bit. We’re looking at Monday, 2/9/14 as the new launch date. Fortunately, the Lipinski Strad ordeal ended the week on a high note with police arresting three suspects and recovering the violin. At the time this article …

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Lipinski Strad One Step Closer To Recovery Recovered

Violin

UPDATE: 12:00 noon CT: police news conference live telecast (FYI, a bit frustrating to watch with commercials and no firm broadcast time). UPDATE 7:50am CT: the instrument has been reported as recovered and in good condition. A major break in the Lipinski Stradivarius theft transpired yesterday afternoon with the arrest of three suspects ranging in age from 32 to 46. According to the 2/5/2014 edition of JSOnline.com in an article by Ashley …

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Breaking News: $100k Reward Offered For Stolen Lipinski Strad

ADAPTISTRATION-GUY-050

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 31, 2014 Reward to be offered for Stolen Lipinski Stradivarius $100,000 reward offered for information leading to the safe return of the violin  MILWAUKEE (January 31, 2014) – The Milwaukee Police Department continues to investigate the theft of the 1715 Stradivarius violin, which occurred on Monday, January 27, 2014, around 10:20 PM during an armed robbery of Frank Almond following a concert at the Wisconsin Lutheran College. …

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There’s A Reason Why So Many Of The New Model Discussions Are Dead-ends

We hear the term “new model” so often these days that it almost guaranteed to produce eye rolls, sighs, and mass shoulder slumping. But I’m going to let you in on a little secret: all but a handful of new-model conversations are really just the same old-model wolfs in new-model sheep’s clothing. Simply put, those old school discussions are more about gaining dominant control than sustainability, structural deficits, artistic excellence, or …

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