Who’s Minding The Score?

It’s official, there is now a comic strip dedicated to the insanity we call the orchestra business. Who’s Minding The Score? will be published (more or less) every Sunday and you can keep track of the satirical goodness at: https://adaptistration.com/toons. The newest toon goes live this Sunday, 3/7/2010 and we’ll be adding supplementary content to the site on a regular basis over the next several months so make sure you stop by to see what’s new…

As of right now, the only toon available is the single panel pilot (pictured below) from February but rest assured, there’s plenty more on the way unless, of course, Dixon (the cartoonist) figures out how to unlock his ankle chains with a #2 pencil.

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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