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Who Doesn’t Like Timelines And Big Audiences?
By Drew McManus on July 03, 2009  |  Comments 0

Who Doesn’t Like Timelines And Big Audiences?

I always enjoy it when an orchestra website includes some worthwhile info about their history at their website. Case in point, the New York Philharmonic recently released a fascinating searchable database of their performances going all the back to 1842 (BTW, they performed Beethoven’s fifth but it was only 35 years old at that time). Another recent entry is the Grant Park Music Festival’s (GPMF) interactive timeline that coincides with the release of the 75th Anniversary book…

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A Race To The Bottom
By Drew McManus on July 02, 2009  |  Comments 2

A Race To The Bottom

The 6/29/09 edition of huffingtonpost.com published a piece by Kennedy Center for the Arts CEO, Michael Kaiser, that warns of the folly associated with reactive turtling strategies. It is gratifying to see someone else in the business stepping up and pointing out the need to stop panic driven decision making processes responsible for producing a wide variety of long term crippling strategic plans…

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James Russell Gets It
By Drew McManus on July 01, 2009  |  Comments 0

James Russell Gets It

The 6/28/09 edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC) published a guest column by James Russell, the architecture critic for Bloomberg. For my money, Russell is one of the rare visionary writers in this country. His onetime blog, Sticks and Stones, was a beacon of insight and reason that not only predicted the 2008 housing fiasco years in advance, but it regularly covered issues related to architecture and concert hall design. Russell’s AJC piece examines the pros and cons related to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra’s (ASO) decision to shelve plans for the Santiago Calatrava designed concert hall…

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Top 10 Ways To Annoy Your Orchestra Website Visitors
By Drew McManus on June 30, 2009  |  Comments 10

Top 10 Ways To Annoy Your Orchestra Website Visitors

What started out as pet peeves eventually turned into the annual orchestra website reviews, a resource that has contributed to improved website design throughout the entire orchestra business. Nonetheless, that doesn’t mean webpage annoyances have gone away, they’ve just become more refined. As such, I’ve compiled a Top 10 list of the recent offenses…

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By Drew McManus on June 29, 2009  |  Comments 0

Sweet Home Chicago

After a week out of the office, I’m back in Chicago and getting caught up on the ubiquitous pile of email messages, voicemail, etc. that accompany extended departures. As such, I’ll be back on track with regular blogging tomorrow; in the meantime, make sure you didn’t overlook this morsel from the 6/23/2009 edition of the New York Times that reports Barrett Wissman has stepped down as Chairman of IMG Artists. This is the latest development in the ongoing series of events that we’ve been following over the past few months.

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Speedlinking June 26, 2009

Speedlinking June 26, 2009

Due to the time commitments of work here in Springfield, MO with the Springfield symphony and Springfield Regional Arts Council (BTW, the Symphony’s board retreat on Wednesday went wonderfully, what a great group – you’ll be reading more about this project soon), I only have time to post a few links for sites around the cultural blogosphere…
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The Empire Strikes Back

Crisis management public relations is never easy and there is a good reason entire PR firms exist for the sole purpose of helping individuals and organizations’ deal with negative press in a way that marginalizes damage and ultimately brings about favorable public opinion. Traditionally, orchestras tend to deal with negative press using one a few blunt tools that aren’t very effective in bringing about the sort of change appropriate crisis PR management can accomplish. One common example is to responding to negative public attention that doesn’t merit much hope for changing views is to lash out against the author, which is known as argumentum ad hominem, a logical fallacy often employed by politics as a propaganda tool…
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Why Do Orchestras Do That?

Joe Patti, my blogging cohort at Butts In The Seats, posted an open  to the Inside The Arts bloggers that I think is best suited for just about anyone that has a connection to orchestras. Joe asks “Orchestras have some of the best trained and skilled musicians around. Why do they primarily confine themselves to a certain genre and periods of music? Why aren’t they playing all the best music out there? I know most groups have a pops series, but that still barely scratches the surface of the available material and it is separate from their main product. And really, why are the pops separate?”…
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Gambling On The Lowest Common Denominator?

Gambling On The Lowest Common Denominator?

According to an opinon post on 6/19/2009 by Perry Tannenbaum at Charlotte’s Creative Loafing Arts and Entertainment blog, that seems to be exactly what is being suggested with regard to the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra’s (CSO) decision to appoint Christopher Warren-Green as their new music director…
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Jargon Ahoy!

Jargon Ahoy!

One of the more interesting byproducts of the League convention last week was the level of frustration among some managers over whether or not recent rounds of reductions in expenditures were temporary or fixed. According to most attendees I spoke with, there was a strong aversion to words like “restoration” and “temporary;” in fact, serious efforts were underway to begin crafting new jargon to avoid those terms…
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Pop Quiz!

Pop Quiz!

You didn’t think the summer was going to be an opportunity to let your brain coast along in neutral, did you? Of course not and to that end, here’s a little quiz to get you thinking…
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Don’t Wait, Buy Your Copy Now!

Don’t Wait, Buy Your Copy Now!

According to the Grant Park Music Festival’s (GPMF) website, describes itself as “The nation’s only free, municipally funded, summer-long, classical music series, the Grant Park Music Festival has been a key part of the lakefront’s vibrant history.” That means it is a government sponsored, autonomous orchestra; yes, an organization thought to only exist mostly in Europe has been around right under our US noses for the past 75 years. To celebrate their 75th anniversary, the GPMF commissioned a publication that I was lucky enough to get my hands on a few days before it is officially released…
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