Revisiting Frank

Although I had the opportunity to meet a number of wonderful folks (you know who you are) during my recent trip to NYC for the Nashville Symphony’s Spring For Music concert it was a sincere pleasure to bump into Frank J. Oteri. Regular readers and culture blog denizens are likely well aware of Frank and his work at NMBX (NewMusicBox) but if he’s someone that isn’t on your radar, then you should set aside some time this week and remedy that condition.

Since you’re already here, you might as well begin at this point and working your way out. In 2007, Frank provided one of my personal favorite Take A Friend To The Orchestra contributions and prior to that, when I was still writing Neo Classical, we did a Q&A session that was subsequently published as a profile piece.

Beyond that, Frank’s not very difficult to find; whether it is related to his nearly endless stream of articles at NMBx or his composing.

And yes, Nashville’s concert was terrific. I’m a huge Percy Grainger fan and it was a sincere teat to hear them perform The Warriors.

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.

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