A Tale Of Twin Cities
Wed, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
I don’t know if it is anything more than a coincidence but two stories came out in Minneapolis media outlets that couldn’t do a better job at pointing out opposite ends of the fortune pole. One reported on an 11.3 percent pay cut for St. Paul Chamber Orchestra (SPCO) musicians while the other reported on
How NOT To Use New Media
Mon, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
If you’re looking for a good example of how to use a new media platform in the worst possible way, American Federation of Musicians (AFM) International President Thomas F. Lee provides the best example I’ve come across to date with a series of videos the AFM released on YouTube. Everything in this video from the
2010 Compensation Reports: Concertmasters
Fri, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
The 2007/08 season was an odd year for concertmaster compensation. Although one individual shattered previous all time high records, it was due in most part to undisclosed terms related to contract buyout. At the same time, the second highest paid concertmaster still beat last year’s high by a few thousand dollars. Overall, the average concertmaster
2010 Compensation Reports: ROPA Music Directors
Thu, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
The 2007/08 season was an up and down year for average ROPA music directors. On one hand, average compensation only increased by 1.02 percent, less than musician stakeholders, but the real average moved that to a level twice as high as musician stakeholders…
2010 Compensation Reports: ROPA Executives
Wed, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Although they didn’t enjoy nearly as large of an increase in compensation as their ROPA peers, the average ROPA executive still managed to outpace inflation by a healthy margin. Comparatively, the 2007/08 season produced the highest percent increase in average compensation since the 2002/03 season…
2010 Compensation Reports: ICSOM Music Directors
Tue, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
For the second year in a row, the average Music Director of an ICSOM ensemble experienced the smallest real average percent increase when compared to the other stakeholder groups. Granted, those figures continue to be skewed a bit since several of the larger budget orchestras did not have a full time music director during the
2010 Compensation Reports: ICSOM Executives
Mon, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
If you were the CEO or Executive Director for an ICSOM orchestra in the 2007/08 season, odds are you enjoyed the largest single increase in compensation in recent history. Taken in context, the 2007/08 season was the height of the economic bubble and clearly, most orchestra executives didn’t miss out on the benefits associated with
AFM Poll Results
Fri, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Last Wednesday’s poll asking readers if they thought orchestra musicians should leave the AFM produced an enormous response rate; at the time this was written, it had over 500 unique reader responses. The results were fascinating on several levels and since this poll allowed users to select multiple responses, it provided some equally fascinating opportunities
Context, Urtext, Or Just Plain Perplexed?
Thu, Jun 6, 2010
by Drew McManus
Ron Spigelman managed to churn up the cultural blogging waters a bit in a recent post entitled It needs to be about CONTEXT not URTEXT!!!! wherein he pushes some tried and true artistic hot buttons. Nothing inspires passionate debate (A.K.A raises the hackles) quite like discussions of artistic nature and the comment thread has taken
“Faulty Reasoning”