Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Extended Stay And Social Engineering

Thu, Aug 8, 2008
It looks like I’ll be staying in Area-51 a bit longer; at the very least I’ll be on site through August 31. Consequently, the Annual Website Reviews may be a bit late this year but rest assured they will be out in the Fall. The work routine is settling into a nice pattern which should

Job Descriptions: Not For the Feint-Of-Heart

Wed, Aug 8, 2008
Thanks to Cincinnati Inquirer music critic Janelle Gelfand for pointing me toward the job description for the President & CEO position at the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It just so happens that writing job descriptions is a live-it, breathe-it, and eat-it sort of thing in my Area-51 project so her timing couldn’t be better…

A Cultural Military-Industrial Complex?

Tue, Aug 8, 2008
Adaptistration People 023
The 7/23/2008 edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer published an article by the ever sharp Peter Dobrin which revealed that former Philadelphia Orchestra President, Joe Kluger, continued to receive compensation from the organization after his departure. Although deferred compensation and severance pay are nothing new, Dobin noted that Kluger’s compensation focused more on consulting fees… “After

Crafting A Clear Message

Mon, Aug 8, 2008
Although it has become fashionable over the past few years to focus on creating elaborate mission statements, that doesn’t mean bigger is always better. On one hand, conducting a thorough institutional self evaluation can produce a multitude of positive results. Yet on the other hand, attempting to put each of those results into words via

Eye Candy

Fri, Aug 8, 2008
Although going to and from my recent mid-project trip to Italy took three times as long as the actual amount of time available to conduct business, there was a handful of minutes available while waiting for a ride to the airport to squeeze in some touristy photos. If you’re an opera buff, you’ll likely identify

The Dutch Perspective Of Orchestras And New Media

Thu, Jul 7, 2008
Nothing like red eye flights with multi-hour layovers on my way back to the orchestral equivalent of Area-51 to get caught up on some blogging. One topic I wanted to point out is a new series of blog posts by everyone’s favorite Dutchman, Marc van Bree. A few days back, Marc posted the first article

Off On A Mid-Trip Trip

Tue, Jul 7, 2008
My current work project has developed in such a way as to require a brief trip away from my current location to Italy for a few short days. As such, today is a travel day and my time to blog is limited; however, there should be ample opportunity on the seven hour flights to catch

Raisin Brahms

Mon, Jul 7, 2008
In case you haven’t seen it already, there’s a terrifically funny commercial from the Americans for the Arts created by the Leo Burnett agency. Although I don’t think the ad will have much impact on the general cultural consciousness but there’s no escaping the fact that this is one clever and creative spot. By pure

Tech Tip For The Day: Date Range Google Searches

Fri, Jul 7, 2008
If you’re like me, a day rarely passes without using Google but one of the long standing issues I’ve encountered with the search engine is narrowing my search parameters by a date range. Fortunately, I ran across a method to enter a date range into a standard Google search but the only trick is the

Unfair Labor Charges Filed In Columbus

Thu, Jul 7, 2008
Musicians of the Columbus Symphony Orchestra (CSO) filed unfair labor practice charges the Columbus Symphony Orchestra, Inc. claiming that the organization is violating the collective bargaining agreement between the Union and the Board by locking out the Musicians of the CSO on June 1, 2008 and for failing to bargain in good faith with the
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