Drew McManus on the Orchestra business | est. 2003

Resources

Compensation Resources

From 2005-2021, one of the most popular and eagerly anticipated series of articles at Adaptistration are the Orchestra Compensation Reports. Published in June each year, this annual event examined the compensation trends among orchestra executives, music directors, and concertmasters at more than 65 professional U.S. orchestras.

Report Index

The Orchestra Compensation Reports

String Instrument Cost of Ownership

Have you ever thought about how much maintaining an instrument will cost an orchestra string musician during his/her career?"

Counting The Costs

Counting The Costs Q&A

The Orchestra Website Reviews

The Orchestra Website Reviews were an annual series published each fall from 2004 through 2012. The final year installment was delayed and modified due to Orchestra Crisis 2012/13 throwing a particularly large wrench into the works.

Reviews Index

Orchestra Governance Essays

Here’s a breakdown of who’s who in orchestra governance and how they fit together. There’s no spin here, you get an inside look into the good, the bad, and the ugly behind those who influence how orchestras function.

Boards

Administrators

Music Directors

Musicians

Musicians' Unions

All Others

Even More Fun…

Editorial Cartoons

Take A Friend To Orchestra Month

Take A Friend To The Orchestra Resource Site

All About Negotiations

The first step in understanding how your local orchestra functions as an organization is to understand the basic principles behind the document that deals with nearly every facet of its operations: the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

How It Works

Who Does What

Why Bother?

A Historical Timeline

What Happens When A Contract Expires?

Understanding The Difference Between A Strike And A Lockout

Let’s Talk About The Unionized Environment Within The Orchestra Field
Who’s Minding The Score?
Archives
About
Contact

Toledo Symphony

Shop Talk S02E01: Navigating COVID Era Agreements

Tue, Jul 7, 2021

by Drew McManus

Season 2 comes out of the gate at full speed and my captivating guests include a group of stakeholders from the Toledo Symphony Orchestra who were brave enough to talk about one of my absolute favorite topics: contracts. More to the point we talked about how this orchestra went about navigating the waters of COVID

No One Can Force You To Make Good Choices

Mon, Jul 7, 2021

by Drew McManus

If there’s one thing the pandemic has demonstrated, it is agreements aren’t nearly as rigid as conventional wisdom dictates. At the same time, they’re only as flexible as the people involved, the choices they make, and the process they embrace. Tomorrow’s post will be the inaugural episode for Season 2 of Shop Talk, it features

2010 Orchestra Website Review: Special Recognition Awards

Thu, Oct 10, 2010

by Drew McManus

During every orchestra website review, several orchestras deserve special recognition for how well they satisfied evaluation requirements as well as demonstrating particular originality and creativity for specific website components, regardless of overall score. As such, the Special Recognition Awards are designed to highlight individual achievements and promote them as benchmarks within the field…

Featured, Website Review

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Adaptistration by Drew McManus LLC is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at https://adaptistration.com/about/terms-of-use-and-permissions/.

PROFESSIONAL DISCLOSURE

Given the author’s position as an arts consultant and technology provider, he does not publish articles examining or focusing on current clients without first obtaining the client’s written permission.

EDITORIAL COMMITMENT

In order to ensure accuracy and provide a comprehensive perspective on any topic, I allow any individual or person officially representing an organization that appears in any Adaptistration article to submit a response which will be published, unedited. Responses are limited to 200 words and must address the issues at hand and the individuals and/or organizations must also be willing to maintain an open dialog for continued discussion.