ASOL Conference Report : 2007

The latest UK Trade and Investment supported activity was IAMA’s recent visit to the American Symphony Orchestra League conference held between 19-23 June 2007.

During this conference, IAMA acted as a host to a number of member companies and hosted a lunch for artistic administrators and artist management on its booth stand. This was well received by all and it served as a good contact opportunity for IAMA members in the United States. Attendance of IAMA members has continued to increase as has the interest shown in the annual seminar in collaboration with the ASOL management. A short seminar report follows for your information.

Report of the American Symphony Orchestra League now called the League of American Orchestras visit supported by UK Trade and Investment

19-23 June 2007

Delegate support for the 3rd ASOL/IAMA seminar held on 21 June 2007 in Nashville, TN, USA was well up on previous years with a good turnout of artist managements and artistic administrators. Entitled, "What Role Can Orchestras Play in Developing Artists' Careers?", the panel discussing the issues comprised colleagues for both artist management and orchestral communities, ably moderated by Ed Yim, Senior Vice-President of IMG Artists. Ed has career experience of both "sides" and his probing questions shaped what was described by several attendees as "a very constructive discussion", drawing on the experience of colleagues, Michal Schmidt (President, Schmidt Artists International Inc.), Aurelie Desmarais (Director of Artistic Planning, Houston Symphony) and Makiko Freeman (Artistic Administrator, Nashville Symphony Orchestra).

If one had to sum up the content of the session with one word it would be "trust". There can be many dilemmas between manager and artistic administrator as to what an artist can or cannot do. For instance, an orchestra may decide that repertoire forms the foundation of all artistic decisions but if an artist is encouraged to perform repertoire for which s/he is not ready, the artist manager might be caught in the middle with a potential conflict of interest. Sometimes, though, thinking needs to be challenged about the risks taken by artists during their career, but the timing of this conversation between artistic administrators and artist managers becomes more important and necessary at an earlier stage. In terms of programming, filling "holes" in the season is counter productive to both promoter and artist and sets up unreasonable expectations, unless the understanding and trust in the decision is mutual.

What about young artists and repertoire?
Young Artists who want to distinguish themselves by performing contemporary repertoire, quite often cannot get the experience they need. Orchestras can be reluctant to profile a new composition together with a relatively unknown artist. This is because to the orchestra, retaining the trust of the audience is vital to sustained success and they should be careful not to alienate this important aspect of performance. To the orchestra management, the understanding of the artist management community of contexts, e.g. artists, programme, physical space, audience, will always enhance good decision making.

Dialogue
The basis of trust is dialogue. But, sometimes this is challenged when feedback is requested by the artist manager and an incomplete reflection is given by the artistic administrators. A cushioned response might be for a good reason, including factors such as relationships, musical considerations and a sense that a music career is a long road and discerning feedback is required. The advice here to artist managers is to be careful listeners in order to appreciate what is being said and not said. The ideal aim, however, is always to be open and as frank as possible about an artist's successes and failures.

Within the artist management company there needs to be thorough dialogue, so that up-to-date, accurate information on an artist is circulated among staff members.

On a more challenging note, an artist manager can gain much credibility in the artistic management's eye if an unsuitable performance opportunity is recognised and an alternative recommendation is made - even if s/he is not managed by same company. The artistic merit of the situation has to be assessed realistically even if that comes as a sacrifice.

How do you bring artists to the attention of the Artistic Administrators?
This question might divide opinion but some of the points made included:

Other questions:
It is anticipated that this seminar initiative will continue at the next League conference scheduled for 10-15 June 2008 in Denver, Colorado when in addition to the League's meeting, other associations such as Chorus America, the Composers' Consortium, Dance/USA, Early Music America, Opera America, and Theatre Communications Group will also be meeting.

Members are encouraged to think about other areas of discussion between artistic administrators and artist managers for future meetings including a wish list of speakers. Please send your suggestions to the IAMA office.

17 July 2007