How are artist managers dealing with Brexit?

No surprise, then. The end of the Brexit transition period means the question of musical exchange between the EU and UK elbows its way alongside the Covid crisis as an urgent subject for discussion in artist management circles.

At a Q&A session for International Artist Managers’ Association members in late January, the organisation’s chairman, Cornelia Schmid, summed up the state of affairs with the words, ‘So much is so unclear, so we don’t know where things are going’. Guesting at the session, Association of British Orchestras director Mark Pemberton described the situation as ‘a clusterf**k’.

This column will return to the subject in more detail next month, when the scale of the task ahead may be clearer. For the moment, a few comments on one fundamental problem now facing artist managers: greater bureaucracy. How to navigate with minimum added costs and workload the situations whereby (a) managers of UK-based artists working in Europe have forthwith to satisfy the entry paperwork requirements of each of the 27 EU countries; and (b) EU-based artists working in the UK are treated in the same red-taped fashion as artists arriving from anywhere else in the world (or…as some already fear, in an even more red-taped fashion)?

‘Clearly we’ll be learning from scratch what the arrangements will be with each country,’ says artist manager Caroline Phillips, who represents singers, conductors and opera directors. ‘You can then develop systems to manage these requirements swiftly and efficiently. Artist managers are remarkably pragmatic when it comes to solving problems, so I’m an optimist. But it’s always distressing when time that should be spent working on artists’ careers has to be devoted to admin. If processes take more time, profitability is affected.

‘Artist managers are used to dealing with all facets of securing engagements and carrying them out. However, in future there may have to be a limit on the number of artists for whom "full service" management applies. Brexit isn’t the only thing contributing to that possibility, but it’s crystallised the situation. It may be that we have to speculate less on younger artists and invest mainly in artists with known reputations in Europe and further afield, who command higher fees.’

French national Catherine Le Bris chose to run her artist management business from London ‘in order to escape French bureaucracy. But now we have this situation! All sorts of questions come to mind. For example, it already was much more difficult, say, to string a UK tour together for an EU-based chamber ensemble. Is that ensemble even going to consider coming just for one date if faced with new costs and bureaucracy — unless it has real cachet? Another example: will it be too complicated and costly now to organise a European tour for a UK chamber ensemble which takes in several countries, each potentially having different visa/work permit arrangements?         

‘However, whatever rules are confirmed by all the countries concerned, I can’t believe they’ll be set in stone. If it hits home that a nightmare has resulted, surely things will change.’

On to that other challenging area of uncertainty, the Covid crisis. A knock-on effect has seen Jordi Martín Mont assume the role of managing director of Maestro Arts. At the Thames-side office, Martín Mont takes over this position from Rachel van Walsum, co-founder of the company with husband Joeske van Walsum.

From the start of the pandemic, says Rachel van Walsum: ‘I took the lion's share of responsibility for the business side of keeping the company afloat as the world turned upside down. Having got Maestro Arts to a position of some safety, the directors and I decided it was a good moment to give the company a fresh lease of energy and vision for the post-pandemic musical landscape. We unanimously agreed Jordi was the right person to become managing director. We’ve always been able to rely on his strategic mind and absolute integrity — and ultimately he's a team player, which is key. Meanwhile, my focus will be entirely on my artists.’

Martín Mont studied as a pianist in Barcelona and at London’s Guildhall School. After working in the support staff of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, his career in artist management began at Maestro Arts’s forerunner, Van Walsum Management — in the role of receptionist, before he was elevated to representing the likes of Yuri Bashmet, François-Xavier Roth and Gustavo Dudamel. He rejoined the Van Walsums when Maestro Artists was born in 2011.

‘Being entrusted with leading the company brings with it both a deep sense of responsibility and excitement for the possibilities ahead,’ observes the new MD. ‘We’re a close-knit team in which everyone is contributing to the bigger picture, but one of the main functions of a managing director is to energise the company as a whole.’

Martín Mont looks at the future in terms of shorter- and longer-term goals. The immediate task, he says, is to come to terms with the current Covid-buffeted ‘tumultuous times, which will change the environment in which we operate in still unforeseen ways.’ Beyond that, he sees one of the prime challenges of modern artist management as being to find and support artists who can engage with audiences in ways that counter the ‘diminishing of attention-spans in today’s celebrity culture. Our society is based on speed, high levels of excitement, and little patience. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s not in tune with the art we’re promoting. It’s precisely because of this tendency towards speed that people find solace in its very opposite.

‘However, an advantage of all this speed is that it’s much easier to get people together to collaborate, compared with before the digital revolution. It’s never been easier to work with people around the world. New technologies can be used in artistic ways and artists can find innovative ways to be creative and present classical music. Our role is to enable these developments in a way that’s in tune with the essence of each artist.’