Don’t Miss These Comments

The past few days have witnessed a flurry of comment activity that is worth your time to review…


First, nothing promotes interest like pigs on a stick and the “f-word”. Apparently, John Adams’ original libretto to Nixon In China included the famous four letter word but it was removed in the recent performances in St. Louis and Chicago. Readers discuss that and more: click here

Next, my blog neighbor Andrew Taylor weighs in regarding the role and authority of board members and sets the stage for some detailed discussion on the issue: click here

Finally, yesterday’s article about time zones and cultural interest generated some good discussion regarding the reasons behind why Mountain Time Zone residents appear to take less interest than residents of other time zones: click here

About Drew McManus

"I hear that every time you show up to work with an orchestra, people get fired." Those were the first words out of an executive's mouth after her board chair introduced us. That executive is now a dear colleague and friend but the day that consulting contract began with her orchestra, she was convinced I was a hatchet-man brought in by the board to clean house.

I understand where the trepidation comes from as a great deal of my consulting and technology provider work for arts organizations involves due diligence, separating fact from fiction, interpreting spin, as well as performance review and oversight. So yes, sometimes that work results in one or two individuals "aggressively embracing career change" but far more often than not, it reinforces and clarifies exactly what works and why.

In short, it doesn't matter if you know where all the bodies are buried if you can't keep your own clients out of the ground, and I'm fortunate enough to say that for more than 15 years, I've done exactly that for groups of all budget size from Qatar to Kathmandu.

For fun, I write a daily blog about the orchestra business, provide a platform for arts insiders to speak their mind, keep track of what people in this business get paid, help write a satirical cartoon about orchestra life, hack the arts, and love a good coffee drink.

Related Posts

  • The 5/18/2016 edition of Fortune.com published an article by David Meyer that highlights a new piece of wearable technology designed to provide deaf people…

    Adaptistration People 120
  • I know, we had a video post earlier in the week and doing two in the same week is decidedly outside the norm for…

    Brutal
  • A few months ago, I made a big switch from using traditional comments to a system powered by Facebook. At the time, I mentioned…

    Facebook

Leave a Comment