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96 International Arts Manager January 2006

Global reach
Since Barrett Wissman became involved with IMG Artists, the company has been expanding with new offices and festivals around the world. Robin Newton reports

HERE WAS A TIME NOT SO LONG ago when IMG, along with CAMI, dominated artist management. The power they wielded gave them an unprecedented level of influence and control; and that was quickly turned into serious money. The foundations of IMG, however, lay in sport where the constant influx of new stars and the constant exposure of existing champions provide seemingly endless revenue opportunities. The arts, with the exception of a few proven long-term performers, did not yield such riches. By the beginning of the 21st century, the artist management branch of IMG was failing; some reports claimed annual losses of 1m ($1.7m). Clearly, something had to change. IMG decided to sell its artist management arm but found buyers hard to come by. In 2003, Mark McCormack, the founder and heartbeat of IMG, died suddenly, making the situation more urgent: there was no clear way forward but swift action considerable recovery: was essential. turnover has increased S e e m i n g l y We are in danger of out of the blue, losing our audience if by 40% in two years and is expected to grow Barrett Wissman between 10% and 15% appeared. His we dont nurture it more in 2006. Add to offer to buy a that a new Singapore majority share of IMGs artist management business office opened in October 2005 with was accepted with alacrity and a new era another opened earlier in Italy and began. Now rebranded as IMG Artists, things certainly look good for IMG 70% of the company is owned by Artists. Wissmans belief is that the world of Wissman with the remaining 30% artist management must change rapidly remaining in the hands of IMG. Not surprisingly, Wissmans appear- if it is to build a future for itself. There ance generated more questions than it is so much going on around the world answered. Although his background today, not just in our kind of music but showed a love of music he trained as a in all areas, that we are in danger of pianist, has a degree in music and losing our audience if we dont nurture married the cellist Nina Kotova there it. We as an agency cannot behave as we was nothing apparent in his profes- used to, simply booking artists into sional past to suggest why he might engagements the world over and taking commission. We have to work on want to take over IMG Artists. Wissman, however, has been great building our audience. We have to give success. IMG Artists has experienced a our artists the opportunity to be involved

directly with the public. We have to reenliven the arts and not just take money out. Our job as arts managers is to move in new directions and, because were in touch with so many artists at the same time, were in a perfect position to do exactly that. The challenge facing artist management, Wissman feels, is combining global reach with local understanding. In some ways there is nothing new in this concept; larger agencies with an international remit have commonly relied on small, local agencies for information. Wissmans modification, however, is to have many smaller offices all under a single management umbrella. Local knowledge is vital, he says. It is important to be global because we need to be aware of all the potential opportunities for our artists. Without knowing what is happening on the ground, though, we would never

Wissman at work with Maxim Vengerov

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Wissman (back row, second from left) and friends at the Tuscan Sun Festival

discover these opportunities. The reason we have offices in all these places which now includes New York, London, Paris, Lucca, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore is build relationships with local organisations, ministries of culture and so forth. Nevertheless, building such a network is only valuable if it is used in the right way. Wissman believes that the key to unlocking this potential lies in creating events. It is essential for us as managers to keep the business of music making alive. You see this on the pop side of the fence with constant thinking about marketing and publicity always coming up with new

ways of getting people interested. I dont believe that we should necessarily copy that and I am absolutely certain that our art should remain pure but I am quite sure that there are other ways of getting people interested. We want things that become infectious; success stories that everybody wants to buy into. I want to try to create events that bring people together, events that artists really want to come to, events that encourage audiences to get involved and to engage more with the performers. Four years ago Wissman founded the Tuscan Sun Festival, which is a combination of music, art and litera-

ture. Not only that, he also introduced food and wine events into the mix. The idea is that people come and try different things and gradually become more and more involved. It might take a couple of days or three years but were encouraging a new audience. The Tuscan Sun Festival has been so successful that weve extended the idea to include Napa Valley in the States that will unite the worlds best and most adventurous music making with the visual, literary and culinary arts. Singapore is interested in hosting a similar event and in China IMG Artists started a huge music education festival called the Canton Summer Academy with Charles Dutoit as music director. More than 800 students from all over Asia participate in concerts and masterclasses during a week and a half of activities. None of this is to suggest that IMG Artists is no longer engaged in the dayto-day business of negotiating and scheduling for a large roster of artists. Wissman, however, is convinced that without generating new interest, there will be nothing to book his artists for. The notion of arts management as a booking service is gone. The landscape has changed dramatically in terms of funding and in terms of what people actually want. We have to keep the business alive and at the moment I dont see other agencies doing this. It might mean that we dont get rich but we have to generate successful platforms for our art. If our festivals are of a high enough quality and create the right atmosphere then they will be such platforms. As long as we dont actually lose money, its worth it to me. IAM

Reprinted from International Arts Manager magazine, January 2006 edition web: www.api.co.uk email: subs@alaincharles.com tel: +44 20-7834 7676