Artist manager of the year: Moema Parrott

Moema Parrott was in a French hospital, having given birth to her second child, when news arrived that she was the 2020 ABO/Classical Music Artist Manager of the Year. ‘I was rather exhausted at that moment,’ the president of HarrisonParrott Paris and CEO of Polyarts recalls. ‘So this was a wonderful boost — especially after the 2020 we’d endured, like all other managements. It’s very emotional and encouraging receiving this sort of recognition.’

Parrott’s 2020 will live long in the memory - the 20-hour days spent countering the Covid effect on the profession. ‘You just battled on as best you could, firefighting. Every day handling cancellations, re-booking engagements if you could, sorting out complicated travel arrangements when concerts were happening, arranging for Covid testing, for quarantine, and so on.’

At the same time, though, the teams at HarrisonParrott and Polyarts set their minds to fast-tracking developments in the online/digital space in order to accelerate performance and profile-enhancing opportunities for the companies’ artists and artistic partners. Here, Parrott worked alongside colleagues, notably Lorna Aizlewood, Lydia Connolly and HP chief financial officer Ian Giddons, to reimagine the future. ‘For us,’ says Parrott, ‘2020 was less about furloughing than re-directing the talent and energy of our staff. We created a “New Business” task force to examine new income streams — a company-wide initiative. All levels of staff were trained-up, ensuring that everyone could feel involved in the creative process. Teamwork was everything.’

This task force examined any number of angles: among them, sales of content to TV/media partners, licensing of orchestral content, speaking events for artists, digital masterclasses, film scoring, game scoring, sponsorship and branding activity, and evaluating new digital platforms, which led to the launch of the partner companies’ major new 2020 initiative, Virtual Circle. Under the leadership of Lorna Aizlewood, this bespoke digital platform took shape as an interactive viewing experience for audiences worldwide. At the same time it enables artists and orchestras additional opportunities to monetise their work via ticketed paywalls, media partnerships and sponsors, as well as seeing album sales facilitated via the Virtual Circle app. The music dimensions on offer will spread far wider than classical. All the arts can find a home here. ‘The long-term aim is for HarrisonParrott/Polyarts to produce more of their own content and productions,’ adds Parrott.

This rapidly expanded exploration of online and New Business possibilities, linked to a 360° management approach, draws on strengths Parrott has displayed in the years since founding Polyarts in 2015. The company embodies the skills and outlook developed through various positions she held with multinational film and television companies (notably Universal and 20th Century Fox) in France, the UK and Brazil - the last-named the native country of her mother, the pianist Cristina Ortiz. ‘In those years,’ she says, ‘I developed a passion for the branding/digital world. The breadth of the roles I took on has continued to shape my eclectic views and lateral thinking.

‘I’d wanted to make my own way in the world, so didn’t join my father, Jasper Parrott, at HarrisonParrott until I could bring something to the table. Eventually, when I came to London as a director at NBC Universal, I was invited to join the HarrisonParrott board as director of New Business — to bring an external and more commercial viewpoint to the company. A couple of years later I came up with the idea of creating Polyarts, which relates to much of my previous experience. Talking with artists, venues and promoting organisations I felt there was a gap to be bridged between classical and commercial — including areas of film, gaming and tech performance — via multi-faceted artists and multi-genre special projects.’

Polyarts was duly set up in Paris, where Parrott lived straight after university, admitting to ‘a weakness for the romance of this stunningly beautiful city. It’s more personal than London. The classical market is smaller and somehow more accessible. And I love the quality of life: in France you have lunch, not sandwiches at your desk!’

As the Covid crisis has demonstrated, international crises often speed up major advances in science and technology — something mirrored in the re-tooling exercise with which HarrisonParrott/Polyarts were engaged in 2020. Parrott nonetheless observes that the outcome capitalises on developments in the classical music world already under way. ‘The industry is changing and we have to adapt. Classical music has tended to project the idea that serious artists don’t need to be managed in a commercial way. But a greater realism is developing, especially among younger musicians. They can appreciate, for example, what it might mean to feature classical music in more commercial spheres and reach broader audiences. They’re media-savvy and good at thinking in management terms.’

The question on many lips has nonetheless long been whether online opportunities can deliver a significant cash return. Parrott is both realistic about the short term and utterly convinced this area of activity will justify the time and effort put into a project like Virtual Circle. ‘Yes, the audience is still building. In many respects the job at the moment is a marketing one, getting the news out there as to how attractive the digital offer is. The more it's accepted, the more profitable it can become. We just have to keep working at the various models to make it ever more attractive.

‘But look: we were really encouraged to have around 2,000 people access the Virtual Circle Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra concert last December. Hardly bad. Already we can see that digital will attract people to classical music who weren't engaged before, people who might be uncomfortable with concert etiquette but are happy for the interface to be an online one. The virtual experience can only grow. It might be a question of being able to ‘visit’ the green room directly after a concert or pay to have a great artist perform as a hologram in your living room. You can never replace the experience of actually being in a concert hall or opera house, but something really exciting is on offer, nonetheless.’