Wichita Symphony Orchestra

Looking For A Way To Chip Away At The Us vs. Them Walls?

Friday, May 27th, 2022Friday, May 27th, 2022 by Drew McManus

The idea would have never occurred to me in a million years but if you’re looking for a legitimate initiative to help build positive connections between stakeholders, be sure to check out something the Wichita Symphony rolled out a few months ago. Spoiler: they designed an improv workshop. Attended by a cross section of a dozen board members, managers, and musicians it produced worthwhile results. The program was initiated by the …

#TBT Stingy Event Details

Thursday, January 23rd, 2020 by Drew McManus

Back in 2013 we examined the trend of orchestras to include scant information about an event on the corresponding single event pages at their website. Since then, not much has changed. Spend a little bit of time going through orchestra websites and odds are, you’ll find very little information about the works listeners can expect to hear. Budget size doesn’t seem to have impact. Even some mega-budget groups routinely provide no …

Disrupting Musician Employment Agreements

Wednesday, April 10th, 2019Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 by Drew McManus

In her 2015 book, Reinventing Dell: The Innovation Imperative, Heather Simmons, former Dell General Manager and Executive Director of Marketing from 1992-2005 wrote “Those who disrupt their industries change consumer behavior, alter economics, and transform lives.” I couldn’t agree more, but even though disruption inside the classical music field is a tall order, it shouldn’t preclude us from looking for opportunities. As someone who has worked for more than two decades …

What A Great Way To Bring In New Subscribers

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2020Monday, January 28th, 2013 by Drew McManus

There’s nothing quite like experiencing three shows of Bugs Bunny At The Symphony in the space of two days, which is precisely how I spent the past weekend here in Chicago. It was particularly fun to sit in the audience and take in all of the ambient chatter. There were no shortage of families with parents pointing out instruments and introducing kids to the concert hall and there were more than …

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