Artist Managers: a golden-gated opportunity

Reading the news in late 2020 that the San Francisco Conservatory of Music (SFCM) had bought New York-based artist management firm Opus 3 Artists prompted a rubbing of the eyes around the international artist management community. Any lingering puzzlement at the idea of a not-for-profit educational institution acquiring a for-profit company in this context perhaps fell away in last month with the news that the SFCM has now purchased the London-based Askonas Holt artist management company. The working link between the two developments is the appointment of Askonas Holt chief executive Donagh Collins to additionally take on the same role at Opus 3.

The double acquisition has everything to do with the leadership mindset of SFCM president, David Stull (pictured above). Since his appointment in 2013, this lateral-thinking livewire re-imagined the model of what a 21st-century conservatory of music could (and should) offer. ‘It’s all too easy each year to do what you’ve done the year before, to replicate the previous curriculum,’ Stull observes. ‘You can’t just talk about disruption… you have to commit to it, to evolve. One thing I felt we needed was to create a space where students would confront the music industry in real time. Having this connection to artist management provides a direct link to the profession outside.’

That connection is envisaged in terms of various component parts. Opus 3 and Askonas Holt artists are being invited to engage with SFCM students via masterclasses, mentoring and on-campus performances (including SFCM commissions), recording sessions and — clearly a key element — concerts and other activities in a community context across and beyond the San Francisco area. In addition, Opus 3 and Askonas Holt artist managers will visit the conservatory to pass on marketing and career development know-how. In the mix will be the expertise and opportunity afforded by another SFCM acquisition under Stull’s strategy, the classy Pentatone recording label.

The notion of purchasing Askonas Holt was sparked initially by the need to replace the retiring CEO of Opus 3, David Foster. ‘It was clear that people in the music industry have such respect for Donagh Collins, so we made an offer to him,’ Stull explains. ‘Donagh’s developed a true music-driven company which is a real force for good.’

The idea of the SFCM acquiring Askonas Holt as part of the deal emerged from subsequent discussions. ‘It was emphatically not a case of Askonas Holt needing to be rescued financially, or anything like that,’ Collins insists. ‘Both us and Opus 3 are growing companies — Askonas Holt took on fifteen new employees in 2022. The bottom line is that we didn’t need to do what we’ve done. It’s a case of wanting to do it. It’s about growing the classical music offer of the future by bringing together education, recording and management… about doing things differently, having broader expectations of the ways in which creative, resourceful people in leadership positions can collaborate.

‘David’s great at thinking outside the bubble. He has fruitful relationships with contacts beyond the immediate arts world, including venture capitalists, people from Silicon Valley and so on. His ultimate aim is to develop rounded graduates by giving them access to all kinds of individuals.’

No news for release yet but, says Stull, ‘various projects are being talked about with Askonas Holt — and something we know about at the SFCM is where to find serious funding to support them. One thing that’s emerged via the Opus 3 relationship is an artist apprentice scheme. This specifically aims at identifying major artists of tomorrow from around the world. They receive mentoring at the conservatory, based at our new Bowes Center.’

The Technology Hall at SFCM's new Bowes Center, set up with Dolby Atmos Octopus (Photo Courtesy of SFCM)

That relationship also involves such dimensions as the promoting of music education in the community and the offering of student internships at Opus 3. Donagh Collins earmarks one area of Askonas Holt ambition which he believes will be boosted thanks to the SFCM take-over. ‘As a company we’re dedicated to carbon consciousness so, with the SFCM’s involvement, we’re planning projects which take due cognisance of the fact that there needs to be a reduction in air travel on the part of musicians.’

So what does the SFCM acquisition not involve or imply? Emphatically not a merger between Askonas Holt and Opus 3, whose boards of directors will remain separate. ‘Yes, we have a history of collaborating and also have some artists in common,’ says Collins, ‘but we very much remain individual, competing companies. We have different cultures, different DNA. But that doesn’t mean we can’t work closely together for mutual benefit… and the likelihood is that we’ll collaborate more as a result of these developments.’ Equally, the SFCM will not expect its young musicians to enjoy a short-cut to the roster of either management company — although Opus 3 happens recently to have taken the initiative to offer representation to violinist Amaryn Olmeda.

As for the reaction to the move from those on the Askonas Holt roster and the company’s staff? ‘Our artists have had lots of questions,’ Colins reports, ‘but they’ve been very supportive. Mostly they’ve asked whether there’ll be any change to the level of service they receive… and of course, there won’t be. We took time to explain to the staff in London that there wouldn’t be the slightest detrimental effect on them. The standard, basic work which artist managements do will continue as before. But by the same token, standing still was not an option for the company.’

My Christmas reading by the log-fire was a re-acquaintance with the magical 1956 Bertensson/Leyda biography of Rachmaninov (Sergei Rachmaninoff: A Lifetime in Music). A tale immaculately told, with expert usage of first-hand sources — including a diverting story of how in the summer of 1936 the great man and his wife Natasha were visited at their Swiss villa by his manager in the UK, Robert (Bob) Ibbs (pictured above) — ‘ a corpulent man with a round, ruddy face’, in the quoted eyewitness account by Alfred Swan. As was his wont, Rachmaninov decided on a high-speed motorboat spin on the adjacent Lake Lucerne, with Ibbs and Swan aboard.

Despite being better qualified at steering musical careers than motorboats, Ibbs asked for a go at the wheel. Alas, he proved over-ambitious with an impossibly sharp turn — and almost disposed of one of his prime assets. ‘Just as the heavy boat was about to capsize and bury us under it, Rachmaninov set it right and we glided back to the embankment,’ reported Swan. ‘Don’t say anything to Natasha’, said Rachmaninov. ‘She won’t let me go boating any more.’ Stick to the day job, Bob.