Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Over the weekend, I posted the following rant about portfolio aspect ratio images on Facebook: PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT When getting PR photos, please insist the photographer shoot in landscape aspect ratio, not portrait. Posted by Drew McManus on Thursday, July 9, 2020 Given that it’s always a good thing to balance a rant with something productive on the same topic, I decided to create a free Photoshop template that provides one method …
I want to toss out a short academic exercise in the form of thinking about how the ubiquitous curtain speech will fit into post-COVID concerts. Even before the shutdowns, curtain speeches were pushing the envelope of ticket buyer patience and starting to have a negative impact on the overall concert experience. At the same time, we all know why they exist. Those reasons will only be exacerbated in the wake of …
Results remained steady this week and while there were no major changes in employment status, that doesn’t change the fact that according to respondents, it’s clear that orchestra staffers and musicians continue to move toward higher ratios of under-employed and unemployed statuses. Weekly Report Administrators continued to experience continued movement in existing directions. There was a slight uptick in the ratio indicating they were working or being paid at their regular …
Each year, we take some time to examine base musician compensation levels at the top eight highest paying orchestras. But thanks to the impact COVID-19 is having on orchestra collective bargaining agreements (CBA), we’ll need to postpone this installment a year. Unlike executive, music director, and concertmaster figures examined in the annual compensation reports, these wages are determined years in advance by way of collective bargaining agreements. As a result, instead …
At the end of June, we examined growing labor tensions at the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra (ISO) over what the musicians described as unnecessarily aggressive negotiations over back pay, benefits, and media agreement terms. Since then, I managed to have a conversation with the ISO’s CEO James Johnson. Media Agreement According to a press statement from the musicians, the employer was pushing for changes to the existing media agreement in order to make good …