Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
The recent Chicago Symphony Orchestra (CSO) strike is an excellent example of something that demonstrates how much the work stoppage PR landscape has shifted over the past decade. For example, one of the strongest musician talking points is the deleterious impact concessions have on an orchestra’s ability to attract and retain the very best artistic talent. This was a cornerstone of the CSO musician position: If the employer does away with …
The weekend saw some extraordinary events as the musicians from the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (PSO) and Philadelphia Orchestra Association (POA) went on strike. Since that news broke on Friday, 9/30/2016 there are no shortages of presumptions floating around so in order to provide a clear frame of reference, let’s examine some of the key points and misnomers. IMPORTANT UPDATE: As of Sunday, 10/2/2016, the Philadelphia Orchestra is no longer on strike. …
For the average music director, the 2012/13 season was a good year financially; although a few high profile positions remained vacant that season, such as Boston and Philadelphia, brought the average increase lower than it would have been otherwise, most music directors saw their earnings increase by 3.43 percent. The Information In order to provide information that is as accurate as possible, info from the 2012/13 season is gathered from the following sources: …
Yesterday’s post examining the Detroit Symphony Orchestra’s (DSO) policy to obfuscate their music director compensation generated a great deal of intriguing discussion throughout social media. It was fascinating to wade through the different discussions, several of which focused on the impact something like this might have on a donor’s decision to support an organization. To that end, I’m curious to know what you think. Take a moment and approach the following …
Last week’s orchestra compensation reports produced one of the most troubling instances in its nearly decade long history by way of discovering the Detroit Symphony Orchestra (DSO) implemented a policy designed to obfuscate their music director compensation. Moreover, when asked about the compensation data, the DSO refused to release the information, even though their music director provided his employer with permission to do exactly that. For the sake of perspective, the …