What On Earth Is Going On At Philadelphia?
Fri, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
On Tuesday, July 13th, a big blue banner link on the home page at the Philadelphia Orchestra entitled “Securing The Future, Negotiations Update” appeared. This was quite a surprise to see since it’s customary for both sides involved in a contract negotiation to have a press blackout. According to a representative from the AFM Symphonic
Mixed Messages From Philadelphia
Thu, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
Let’s try an exercise in understanding today; we’re going to walk a mile in another man’s shoes. Imagine: You’re a middle manager at a fictional company we’ll call Widget-Tech. Widget-Tech is a business with under 100 employees and has recently had a couple of bad years. The big bosses at Widget-Tech have put together a
Unemployed In San Antonio
Wed, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
There has been some good news coming out of the San Antonio Symphony administrative offices lately, such as the announcement last month that they will resume making music on September 17th, 2004 and the securing of a sponsor for some of their children’s concerts. Unfortunately, that’s about all of the good news so far. Since
All That’s Fascinating About Classical Music
Tue, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
I’m going to indulge myself today and go a little off topic. I’m not going to talk about management issues or any current industry events. Instead I’m just going to write about a concert I recently attended. I don’t want to write a critique of the performance, so I won’t. What I want to do
Reader Response: Keeping Me Accurate
Mon, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
Before I left for vacation, I posted a few articles (here and here) about the San Francisco Symphony’s outreach program that was produced and aired by PBS. In the second article I called PBS member station “affiliates” and I wondered why they didn’t choose to broadcast the Keeping Score program. Thankfully, one of Adaptistration’s readers
Making Sense Of The Salary Issue
Fri, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
Upon returning from vacation this week I was very pleased to find a few articles about orchestra executive and music director compensation. One was from last Sunday’s New York Times by Blair Tindall, the other by fellow AJ blogger Andrew Taylor. In Blair’s original article, she went into many of the topics that have been
The Honolulu Symphony – An Island Unto Itself
Thu, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
It’s not uncommon to hear managers and musicians alike espouse how their orchestra is “unique” among the landscape of American orchestras. They use this to justify why an idea that is successful at Orchestra “A” wouldn’t be transferable to their situation. And to small degrees this is usually true, but the larger picture shows us
The Controversy Over Commissions
Wed, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
I have to start off this article by employing the use of a shockingly dirty word. A word so heinous that it’s mention can curve an arts administrator’s spine, infect the soul of a donor, and cause America’s orchestras to fall into ruin. If you have a child reading over your shoulder you had best
Back In Town
Mon, Jul 7, 2004
by Drew McManus
I’m back from the Tetons and I already miss being there. It never ceases to amaze me just how good an orchestra can play when everyone is happy, healthy, and talented. There was a fantastic concert where the first half featured music entirely by modern composers (although the modern music purists would be upset to
Off To The Tetons
Fri, Jun 6, 2004
by Drew McManus
I’ll be away from blogging for the next week or so unless I find a cyber caf
