Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

2013 Compensation Reports: Concertmasters

Fri, Aug 8, 2013
Rounding out a year of increases in the 2010/11 season, the average concertmaster did see an uptick in compensation but at 0.87 percent, it pales in comparison to executives and music directors. Nonetheless, the season did witness an anomaly by way of a new all time high concertmaster annual compensation figure of $829,470; earned by

2013 Compensation Reports: Music Directors

Thu, Aug 8, 2013
For the average music director, the 2010/11 season was a good year financially. Experiencing an average increase of 12.02 percent in compensation, conductors gained more than either executives or concertmasters; in fact, the average music director compensation reached an all time high of $480,037. Worth noting is the 2010/11 high earner, San Francisco Symphony’s music

2013 Compensation Reports: Executives

Wed, Aug 8, 2013
By the onset of the 2010/11 season, the field was amidst the beginning of the worst austerity driven labor disputes for the last half century. Collective bargaining agreements were being reopened in order to incorporate concessions designed to forestall financial collapse and when stakeholders were unable to reach mutually agreeable terms, vitriolic public disputes erupted,

2013 Orchestra Compensation Reports: Twists And Turns

Tue, Aug 8, 2013
This year’s compensation reports are all about context. For instance, the data covers compensation for the 2010/11 season, which if you recall was the first really nasty year of austerity driven conflict between stakeholders. The Detroit Symphony went dark for nearly the entire season as did the Louisville Orchestra and the Philadelphia Orchestra started walking

Off To Saskatoon

Mon, Aug 8, 2013
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I’ll be in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan all week for the Organization of Canadian Symphony Musicians (OCSM) 2013 Conference. I’m honored to serve as their keynote speaker on Fourth Generation theory and how it apples to the North American orchestra field as well as participating in a number of workshops and panels. While away, the 2013 Orchestra

Conventional Wisdom Is An Oxymoron

Fri, Aug 8, 2013
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According to an article by Zoe Fox in the 8/8/2013 edition of Mashable.com (h/t Ceci Dadisman), they may not have been the plankowner generation for social media but the over 65 demographic is now the fastest growing group to embrace it. This new data could indicate major shifts in arts marketing assumptions for an audience

The Man Knows How To Write A Catchy Headline

Thu, Aug 8, 2013
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Even though Adaptistration is coming up on its ten year anniversary, one of the more vexing tasks is writing concise headlines that are both catchy and descriptive; oh, to be as clever as the Daily Show writers. But one man who never seems to have trouble writing headlines in Norm Lebrecht and he published this

Would You Only List One Online Ticket Price?

Wed, Aug 8, 2013
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I hope everyone from the Box Office and Marketing sectors takes a moment today to drop by Joe Patti’s Butts In The Seats post from 8/5/2013 where he asks colleagues about their practices with listing ticket price tiers online. What caught my attention, and I hope catches yours too, was the bit about his box

San Antonio CEO Spot Is Open (again)

Tue, Aug 8, 2013
Adaptistration Guy Out The Door
According to an article by David Hendricks in the 7/31/2013 edition of MySanAntonio.com, the San Antonio Symphony (SAS) lost their latest CEO after not even three months into the gig. The SAS had a series of high turnovers in the top administrative spot following the organization’s bankruptcy in 2004 and they’ve given the top admin

An Unfortunately Anomaly Or The New Normal?

Mon, Aug 8, 2013
It’s rarely a good sign when Sunday morning news talk show topics have more in common with the orchestra field than not and it was difficult to listen to pundits talking about crippling impact of congressional entrenchment without seeing parallels in our field. One of the more surprising items was related to reports that one
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