Drew McManus on the orchestra business.
Here’s something you don’t see every day: the CEO at one of the largest budget orchestras stepping down out of the blue with nothing more than a 184-word press release announcing the news. But that’s exactly what happened yesterday at the LA Phil where the organization announced Simon Woods was no longer the CEO. The entire announcement was a scant 184 words: On behalf of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, Board …
It’s time to revisit base musician compensation levels at the top eight highest paying orchestras. For a number of these orchestras, the 2018/19 season marks the end of their existing collective bargaining agreement (CBA). In each of those instances, the outcomes will have a large impact on what many orchestra musicians consider their organization’s ability to compete for the best on-stage talent. We’ve been tracking these values since the 2009/10 season …
In response to Wednesday’s article about the new housing shared equity program in the San Francisco Symphony’s (SFS) new collective bargaining agreement (CBA), a number of readers reached out asking about the similar program at the LA Philharmonic I referenced. It’s a straightforward item in the LA Phil’s CBA, Article 13.K: Housing Allowance: On regularly scheduled paydays that follow the close of each payroll period during the Term of this Agreement …
The 9/20/2018 edition of the Los Angeles Times published an article by Mark Swed that features an interview with Simon Woods, the LA Philharmonic’s new CEO. It a good get-to-know-you interview that provides Woods a platform to address some of the topics on his mind about where the orchestra is and where he wants it to go. To that end, one of the primary goals on Woods’ mind is increasing diversity …
The LA Philharmonic recently launched a dedicated microsite for their Centennial Campaign (an endowment capitalization campaign) and it’s a good example for how to go about designing a purpose built microsite. Each page is comparatively short and contains big, obvious conversion targets (making an online donation). It’s a very nice mobile first design that clearly resists the urge to stuff a desktop heavy content approach into mobile layouts. If there’s one …
