Artist Managers: Remembering Nigel Brown

When is an artist manager not an artist manager? Well, you might say that was the case with Nigel Brown OBE, who has died in Cambridge at the age of 77. Brown was involved in founding not one but two artist managements, both in his home city, but was never involved in the day-to-day work of representing artists at the Hazard Chase and Percius offices. He was nonetheless one of those who have helped demonstrate that artist management can flourish outside London.

The now sadly defunct Hazard Chase office (a Covid casualty) came into being in 1990 following an approach to Nigel Brown by one-time orchestral viola player James Brown (no relation). Music-loving Brown N. (who ran a Cambridge-based insurance, financial planning and investment management business) was asked for (and duly provided) help in setting up a diary service for orchestral players. ‘Very early on, though, the cellist Alexander Baillie — who knew Nigel — approached us for full representation,’ James Brown recalls. ‘Nigel and I decided to found an artist management, which we did on a 50/50 basis.’  

David Waterman, cellist of the Endellion String Quartet for forty years until its retirement in 2019, remembers joining the embryonic Hazard Chase roster at a time when the quartet was forced to look for new representation. ‘A couple of managers were showing an interest. Then Nigel and James turned up unannounced at one of our concerts. Nigel was especially proactive in persuading us to go with this new company. I think he felt there was a certain cachet to having the quartet on the company’s list.’

Hazard Chase started out in the basement of Nigel Brown’s financial business, N.W. Brown & Co. ‘Hazard Chase is a Real Tennis term,’ explains Cambridge-based music industry luminary John Willan, who joined the HC board. ‘Nigel excelled at the game, as he did at squash, and played at a high level. To his role as chairman of the board he brought the business steadiness and common sense that an artistic operation needs. Those board meetings were real occasions… Nigel was a colourful character and there were plenty of anecdotes!’

‘N.W. Brown & Co had a number of prominent musicians as clients,’ James Brown recalls. ‘So although Nigel didn’t manage any Hazard Chase artists, he took a great interest in what I was doing. Neither of us had any experience of this kind of business, so we worked things out as we went along. Nigel always had a really positive attitude, so although we didn’t by any means get everything right, we made progress.’ 

A major reason for Nigel Brown’s interest in artist management had been the openings it might offer to sell insurance to musicians. This side of things flourished, as did Hazard Chase itself. In due course, with his approval, the company bought the ailing Magenta Music business. ‘We had to move quickly and take something of a leap of faith,’ James Brown remembers, ‘but we made it work. By then, Hazard Chase was wholly-owned by N.W. Brown & Co. and I was a partner of the latter. In 1999 it felt like the right time for Hazard Chase to stand on its own two feet, so we did a management buyout and Nigel stepped down as chairman.’

The dizzyingly extensive range of Nigel Brown’s support for music and musicians is not a subject for this piece. However, no account of the career is complete without reference to his Stradivari Trust, which was in operation before Hazard Chase came into being. Over the decades this has brought together syndicates of investors keen to purchase fine stringed instruments for individual performers, who usually then progressively buy into the instrument until such time as they own it — the investors thus realising a return on their money. The idea was born of Brown’s awareness that ‘musicians cannot get their hands on these instruments’, while emphasising that this was not in pure financial terms ‘a charitable exercise’.

Starting with Nigel Kennedy, the Trust has benefited musicians at various levels in the profession, with names such as Lawrence Power, Jennifer Pike and Steven Isserlis among the stand-outs. When Hazard Chase was founded, there was a lingering thought that the company’s musician clients would principally benefit from the Trust, a thought soon countermanded in favour of open-handedness.

Natalie Clein acquired a Guadagnini cello via the Trust and recalls Nigel Brown as having ‘…a true passion for the instruments themselves and for the symbiotic relationship between instrument and performer. I will be forever grateful that Nigel could bring me together with my beloved cello – the partner of my life! He gave generations of British string players their voice. He’ll be sorely missed.’

Andrew Watkinson, first violin of the Endellion quartet, recalls another dimension to Nigel Brown’s generosity. ‘We were part way through our Beethoven quartet cycle recordings for Warner Classics and Nigel approached us out of the blue to offer financial help via the Trust. He must have realised that in such projects it can be hard to keep meeting the ongoing costs. That was absolutely brilliant.’

As to that other Cambridge artist management start-up in 2012, John Willan (by this time departed from Hazard Chase) recalls, ‘chatting with Nigel in a Cambridge pub when the idea came up that a new company might be a good idea. We’d both rated Libby Percival’s skills as an artist manager at Hazard Chase and made an offer for her to front the company, which she accepted. “Percius” is a play on her name.’

‘I’d left Hazard Chase and was going to re-train in law,’ Percival recalls ten years on, with Percius a continuing success. ’However, I think Nigel didn’t want me to leave music. He was persuasive and very kind. I think what made him stand out is that he absolutely believed in an individual’s capacity to be more, to change others and situations for the better, across many different sectors. His reach was broad, and his passion for music unquenchable. We’ll miss him very much.’

One final tale of that legendary generosity from David Waterman. ‘The Endellions often played in charity concerts for Nigel. After one of them he gave us the gift of an incredibly expensive magnum bottle of a classic vintage red wine, with Rothschild on the label. Eventually, we took it to the restaurant where the quartet celebrated its fortieth birthday… and debated whether we should drink it or auction it! Well, we decided we couldn’t do the latter so we drank it…and it was absolutely fabulous!’