Review on IAMA Annual Conference of Artist Managers in Berlin

Germany was so far the only country apart from UK, where IAMA returned with its conference after the first time in 2001 at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. The high number of participants this year was also a challenge for the organizers, because the venue with its charming ambience is not designed for such big conventions. But somehow it was also an expression of how the members use to deal with each other. Most of the time they spend with business talks in the cuddly seats, their year planners for 2009 or even 2011 on theirs lap, trying to broke their artists on the big festivals and concert halls around the globe.

May this event be really the only meeting of decision makers in the international music business (what about Cannes in France or NAPAMA in the United States?), from the insider perspective a IAMA conference is mainly a family meeting. To be successful with his negotiations, an artist manager have to earn at first his credibility for his music business partners. This is just a question of time, not to learn at an arts management course anywhere.

An inspiring keynote has been held by Jochen Sandig from the arts venue Radialsystem V in Berlin. He underlined, that unfortunately it didn't worked out bringing together the classical music business with the off scene, probably because of invisible walls in the heads. Let's reaching out for open doors, open minds, open spirits and open spaces, Sandig exclaimed to the participants. For him there is still a lack on entrepreneurial thinking especially in Germany. The Konzerthaus Berlin is an empty box without any artistic budget. Such an arts institution dont need only administrators, but at least one creative person who works as a mediator and communicator.

Jochen Sandig, who is also artistic director and producer of the dance compagnie Sasha Waltz & Guests, discovered an imbalance between software and hardware in the arts. Currently it seems for him that the architecture is more important than whats going to happen inside. His own venue Radialsystem brings together various art forms in difference to his previous place Schaubuehne, where some decision makers didnt want to open the theatre for other art forms. He mentioned the positive example of the sound installation at the MoMA in New York City. Isnt it a bizarre situation, Sandig closed his speech, that where the subsidies are the highest, the people are also the fewest satisfied ones?

In difference to the progressive keynote the workshops and panels didnt meet everybody's expectations. In a session about the relationship between artist managers and promoters, Louwrens Langevoort (Cologne Philharmonics), Karsten Witt (Karsten Witt Management), Peter Schwenkow (Deutsche Entertainment, DEAG) and Jasper Parrott (Harrison Parrott) tried to find out, which of these parties follow and which lead the market. The question remained unanswered. Schwenkow draw the demographic change more as a picture, where even the elder people use the new communication opportunities and the audience makes the rules. He is also convinced that the attitudes of the artists have been changed. "Lang Lang loves press conferences at least so much like his concerts", so artist themselves regularly use the extended PR opportunities. DEAG has meanwhile its own record label and is famous for its big musical and concert events with stars and starlights. For Jasper Parrott looked those stories like being under people from different planets. He found Schwenkows statements astonishing and advocated more for audience development among the younger generation as well as for an artist development as a lifelong process. Do not come the stars to DEAGs commercial market after they are trained by public costs, Parrott asked provocative at the end. Not really a new conclusion!

What IAMAs event made finally so amazing and authentic, were sessions like one with the conductor Michael Gielen telling his experiences about the concert life of more than 50 years. The audience listened quite devotional to his comments. And so it was again a moment of privacy and a proof, that the classical music is still not just a business. The 19th IAMA International Conference will take place at the Philharmonie Luxembourg from 23-25 April 2009.

Details: http://www.iamaworld.com