The BIG Question In Milwaukee

A few weeks ago I published an article which pondered the question of how orchestras could simultaneously cut an artistic budget while simultaneously guaranteeing an equal level of artistic accomplishment.  Since that article, I’ve had a number of emails from very anxious musicians and patrons (not to mention a few managers) expecting an answer. In that article I was referring to the Milwaukee Symphony and the Philadelphia Orchestra.  Since Philadelphia is …

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Finding Gold While Flying In Pretzel Class

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You know the non profit industry has become larger and more influential than ever before when you find articles about for profit managers ditching their jobs to run nonprofits in an airline magazine. And that’s exactly what I found while recently flying on United and browsing through the October issue of their in flight magazine, Hemispheres.  An article by Catherine Fredman called “Profiting from Nonprofits” examines the molehill-turned-mountain of for profit …

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Adaptistration’s One Year Anniversary

It has been a full year since the inaugural article at Adaptistration was published.  When Adaptistration began I assumed that the only people interested in issues related to orchestra management would be orchestra managers and perhaps some musicians.  Since then, I’ve been very pleased to learn that at least half of Adaptistration’s readers belong to either group.

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Universal Thinking Is So Detrimental

A recent article in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review by Mark Kanny reports that the Pittsburgh Symphony president, Larry Tamburri as making the following remarks: “A basic flaw in the economic model of American orchestras compared with most other businesses, says Tamburri, is that productivity increases in music are not possible to compensate for inflationary pressures on salaries, health care and other costs. Music is inherently labor- and time-intensive to prepare and present. …

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Creative Management

I recently had a conversation with Lois Svard, pianist, academic, champion of new music, and creativity guru, about the work she’s engaged in at Innovera.  Innovera is a consulting firm that specializes in helping businesses and organizations learn how to access their own potential for creativity and innovation, thus improving not only individual and group performance, but also ensuring the long-range success of the organization. In one of my very first …

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