Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Take The Adaptistration Classical Music Challenge

Tue, Aug 8, 2006
The Guardian Unlimited published an article on 8/20/06 about how the Vienna Symphonic Library, a new software package designed to reproduce the sound of acoustic instruments, is capable of mimicking “human musicians in the performance of greats such as Bach, Beethoven and Mozart so convincingly that a casual listener to Classic FM would be unable

How Bill H. R. 4 Is Going To Help The Orchestra Business

Thu, Aug 8, 2006
According to CNN, President Bush is expected to sign bill H.R. 4 into law today designed to buttress America’s pension system. For the orchestra business, this new legislation promises to eliminate one of the more contentious issues surrounding collective bargaining agreement negotiations at many large budget organizations…

Classical Connections

Wed, Aug 8, 2006
Edmonton Symphony music director and pianist Bill “The Classical Music Guy” Eddins, snuck in his latest Podcast right before I left for vacation. Entitled Watch The Birdie, it’s an installment with a heartwarming special dedication…

A Cultural Casualty From The Foiled Airline Plot

Tue, Aug 8, 2006
Although the planned terrorist activity was thwarted by authorities in London last week, that doesn’t mean the event didn’t successfully inadvertently strike a blow to the orchestra business. In particular, the Orchestra of St. Luke’s (OSL) had to cancel its scheduled performances at the Edinburgh International Festival and BBC Proms this week. Of course, canceled

Hometown Plug

Thu, Aug 8, 2006
Although I don’t typically plug websites, I want to point out a Chicago based classical music cooperative blog, chicagoclassicalmusic.org…

High Tech On The Cheap – Monkeying Around

Wed, Aug 8, 2006
Following on the heels of the first article in this series designed to examine software products that can help small budget organizations do much more with much less is SurveyMonkey, a hosted enterprise application that describes itself as having “a single purpose: to enable anyone to create professional online surveys quickly and easily.”…

The Concert Hall Experience Without The Concert Hall

Mon, Aug 8, 2006
The Partial Observer published an article of mine today that examines some ideas behind reaching new audiences with advances in audio technology. The ideas for the article came together after reading a piece in Wired about some advances in bass speaker technology and a hiking conversation with an audiophile violinist…

Answering Some 2006 Orchestra Website Review Questions

Fri, Aug 8, 2006
I’ve received a number of similar inquiries from orchestra managers about the impending 2006 Orchestra Website Review so I’ve put together a little FAQ…

The Latest Link In A Sad Chain Of Abuse

Wed, Aug 8, 2006
Aren’t we all tired of orchestra related embezzling? There isn’t a year that goes by without a story going public about someone stealing from orchestras or orchestra musicians. Of course, embezzling is worse than what’s reported as most cases are “taken care of” behind closed doors so it’s difficult to accumulate any reliable statistics regarding

The Dog Days Of Summer

Tue, Aug 8, 2006
“If you stop every time a dog barks, your road will never end.” This Saudi Arabian Proverb couldn’t have been more applicable this weekend as the Grand Teton Music Festival Saturday evening concert was plagued by relentless outside noise in the form of a barking dog. This wasn’t simply a dog that barked a few
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