Columbia Artists Management
Encyclopedia
Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) is an international leader in managing the careers and touring activities of the world's most prominent performing artists and institutions.
Led by Chairman and CEO Ronald A. Wilford and the managing partners of CAMI's subsidiaries, the company has been on the forefront of performing arts management and production throughout the world for eight decades.
CAMI was formed in 1930 by William S. Paley
and Arthur Judson
, in a merger of seven independent concert managers, as part of Columbia Broadcast System. The convergence of major impresarios under the Columbia Concerts Corporation, as CAMI was originally known, began the tradition of cooperation among independent managers that is still in place today. The company’s dominating presence in broadcasting and representation was sustained was driven by the now legendary roster of artists managed by the company’s founders.
CAMI continues its legacy in the discovery and career development of the next generation of young artists from the world over through its subsidiary Columbia Artists Management
(CAM LLC). Under the direction of Tim Fox, President, with colleagues R. Douglas Sheldon and Andrew S. Grossman, Senior Vice Presidents, the company maintains its position as the world's largest classical music management firm internationally recognized for its distinguished list of Artists & Attractions.
The firm’s managers include a diverse selection of individuals who specialize in the careers of instrumentalists, conductors, opera singers and other vocalists, as well as in the touring activities of orchestras and instrumental ensembles. Complementing its activities in classical music, the company manages an extensive roster of world music performing artists, as well as the leading classical, modern and popular dance companies.
For over thirty years, through its Columbia Artists Theatricals (CAT) subsidiary, CAMI has pioneered the development of national Broadway touring. Today, through the leadership of Gary McAvay, CAT continues its long tradition of distributing the highest caliber of theatrical entertainment.
In recognition of the diversity of its artists and of previously untapped opportunities to reach new audiences worldwide, CAMI's subsidiaries are reaching beyond convention to produce an array of innovative projects and special events. These include CAMI Spectrum, led by Margaret Selby; and CAMI GmbH, based in Berlin and led by Till Janczukowicz.
In 2004 Ronald A. Wilford and Jean Jacques Cesbron formed CAMI Music, an independent enterprise, specializing in the worldwide general management and touring of a prominent roster of artists, institutions and theatrical events appealing to both existing and new audiences across the globe. In addition to traditional representation, CAMI Music provides production and consultation services for special events and festivals around the world.
Through the further development of collaborative partnerships, CAMI continues to expand its activities at the forefront of media development and the performing arts
, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
and Renata Tebaldi
; mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens
; contralto Marian Anderson
; tenors Jussi Björling
, Mario Lanza
, John McCormack, Lauritz Melchior
and Richard Tucker
; bass-baritone George London
; bass Paul Robeson
; pianists Van Cliburn
and Vladimir Horowitz
; violinists Jascha Heifetz
and Yehudi Menuhin
; cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
; conductors Herbert von Karajan
, Eugene Ormandy
, Antal Dorati
and Otto Klemperer
; composer-conductors Leonard Bernstein
, Aaron Copland
and Igor Stravinsky
; and composer-conductor-pianists Sergei Prokofiev
and Sergei Rachmaninoff
.
CAMI’s founding and first decades are inextricably linked with the legendary figure of Arthur Judson
, who played a seminal role in the development of classical music both as a modern business and as a major cultural presence in the electronic mass media of the 20th century. He was of particular influence in the fields of radio and recordings throughout the 1930s.
Trained as a concert violinist, Judson became a reporter for Musical America in 1907. His work led to a friendship with the new conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
, a young man named Leopold Stokowski
. This in turn, resulted in Judson’s becoming manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra
in 1915, after Stokowski became its director. The position served as the cornerstone for Judson’s career as a manager under the banner of Concert Management Arthur Judson.
By the mid-’20s, he was cited by The New York Times as "the leading American concert manager," managing the New York Philharmonic
and the famed summertime concert series at the City College of New York’s Lewisohn Stadium, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra
and a growing roster of talented individuals.
With the rise of radio in the ’20s, he formed the Judson Radio Corporation in 1926, with a plan to supply classical performances to the new NBC radio network, formed that same year by RCA. When NBC opted to develop its own programming, Judson quickly organized a rival network, United Independent Broadcasters, in January 1927. Short on financing, the organization was renamed when the parent company of Columbia Records became a major partner. By September, the phonograph company sold its interest to William S. Paley
, an ambitious young executive at a family-owned cigar company in Philadelphia. The fledgling network became known as the Columbia Broadcasting System, with Arthur Judson
as its second largest stockholder.
As the musical needs of the growing network multiplied, Paley and Judson merged seven of the country’s leading independent concert bureaus in 1930 as Columbia Concerts Corporation, pooling the musical knowledge, commercial acumen and booking facilities of key figures in the concert management business. The companies that were merged included Concert Management Arthur Judson, the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau (the oldest concert bureau in America), the Metropolitan Musical Bureau, Evans & Salter, Haensel & Jones, the American Opera Company
and Community Concerts Service. The new firm served as a home base for managers whose rosters represented the most famous artists of the day and whose activities covered all of North America. The organization laid claim at the time to managing nearly two-thirds of the top concert artists in America.
William S. Paley
became the first chairman of the board of Columbia Concerts Corporation with Judson as president. Other officers of the new corporation included Frederick C. Schang, Jr., a former journalist from the New York Tribune who later became president of CAMI, and F.C. Coppicus, the founder of the Metropolitan Musical Bureau. Community Concerts, under the leadership of its founder, Ward French, continued to operate as a subsidiary serving to bring live classical music to smaller venues across the continent by means of prepaid subscription series. French later served as chairman of CAMI.
In 1938, CBS acquired Columbia Records
, its one-time parent company. By 1941, under pressure from government regulators, both CBS and NBC ended their longtime relationships with their respective talent management companies. The independent Columbia Concerts renamed itself as Columbia Artists Management Inc. in 1948.
Frederick Schang, president of CAMI from 1948 until 1959, managed in his long career such performers as Enrico Caruso, Paul Robeson
, Jussi Björling
, Lily Pons
, David Oistrakh
and the Trapp Family Singers. Subsequent presidents of CAMI have included Lawrence Evans, one of the founders, Kurt Weinhold, who started with the company as a salesman, and Ronald A. Wilford, who came to CAMI to create its theatrical division. Mr. Wilford remains chairman of the board of CAMI, as well as chief executive officer.
The principle of cooperation among independent managers, which first inspired the company’s formation, is still firmly in place at CAMI after nearly eight decades. Today, there are 25 managers active worldwide, with offices in New York and Berlin. The company was headquartered from 1959 until 2005 at 165 West 57th Street in Manhattan in a landmark building across from Carnegie Hall
that was built as a dance studio in 1916. CAMI's corporate headquarters are now located nearby at 1790 Broadway, in a 1912 building at the corner of 58th Street.
Led by Chairman and CEO Ronald A. Wilford and the managing partners of CAMI's subsidiaries, the company has been on the forefront of performing arts management and production throughout the world for eight decades.
CAMI was formed in 1930 by William S. Paley
William S. Paley
William S. Paley was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.-Early life:...
and Arthur Judson
Arthur Judson
Arthur Leon Judson was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra...
, in a merger of seven independent concert managers, as part of Columbia Broadcast System. The convergence of major impresarios under the Columbia Concerts Corporation, as CAMI was originally known, began the tradition of cooperation among independent managers that is still in place today. The company’s dominating presence in broadcasting and representation was sustained was driven by the now legendary roster of artists managed by the company’s founders.
CAMI continues its legacy in the discovery and career development of the next generation of young artists from the world over through its subsidiary Columbia Artists Management
Columbia Artists Management
Columbia Artists Management is an international leader in managing the careers and touring activities of the world's most prominent performing artists and institutions.Led by Chairman and CEO Ronald A...
(CAM LLC). Under the direction of Tim Fox, President, with colleagues R. Douglas Sheldon and Andrew S. Grossman, Senior Vice Presidents, the company maintains its position as the world's largest classical music management firm internationally recognized for its distinguished list of Artists & Attractions.
The firm’s managers include a diverse selection of individuals who specialize in the careers of instrumentalists, conductors, opera singers and other vocalists, as well as in the touring activities of orchestras and instrumental ensembles. Complementing its activities in classical music, the company manages an extensive roster of world music performing artists, as well as the leading classical, modern and popular dance companies.
For over thirty years, through its Columbia Artists Theatricals (CAT) subsidiary, CAMI has pioneered the development of national Broadway touring. Today, through the leadership of Gary McAvay, CAT continues its long tradition of distributing the highest caliber of theatrical entertainment.
In recognition of the diversity of its artists and of previously untapped opportunities to reach new audiences worldwide, CAMI's subsidiaries are reaching beyond convention to produce an array of innovative projects and special events. These include CAMI Spectrum, led by Margaret Selby; and CAMI GmbH, based in Berlin and led by Till Janczukowicz.
In 2004 Ronald A. Wilford and Jean Jacques Cesbron formed CAMI Music, an independent enterprise, specializing in the worldwide general management and touring of a prominent roster of artists, institutions and theatrical events appealing to both existing and new audiences across the globe. In addition to traditional representation, CAMI Music provides production and consultation services for special events and festivals around the world.
Through the further development of collaborative partnerships, CAMI continues to expand its activities at the forefront of media development and the performing arts
History
The history of CAMI is to a great extent the history of the modern concert business in America. Since its formation as the Columbia Concerts Corporation on December 12, 1930, our Managers have worked with many of the greatest artists ever to perform on the concert stage, including sopranos Leontyne PriceLeontyne Price
Mary Violet Leontyne Price is an American soprano. Born and raised in the Deep South, she rose to international acclaim in the 1950s and 1960s, and was one of the first African Americans to become a leading artist at the Metropolitan Opera.One critic characterized Price's voice as "vibrant",...
, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Elisabeth Schwarzkopf
Dame Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, DBE was a German-born Austrian/British soprano opera singer and recitalist. She was among the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century, much admired for her performances of Mozart, Schubert, Strauss, and Wolf.-Early life:Olga Maria Elisabeth Friederike...
and Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi
Renata Tebaldi was an Italian lirico-spinto soprano popular in the post-war period...
; mezzo-soprano Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens
Risë Stevens is a retired American operatic mezzo-soprano.-Professional life:Stevens studied at New York's Juilliard School for three years. She went to Vienna, where she was trained by Marie Gutheil-Schoder and Herbert Graf. She made her début as Mignon in Prague in 1936 and stayed there until...
; contralto Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson
Marian Anderson was an African-American contralto and one of the most celebrated singers of the twentieth century...
; tenors Jussi Björling
Jussi Björling
Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...
, Mario Lanza
Mario Lanza
right|thumb|[[MGM]] still, circa 1949Mario Lanza was an American tenor and Hollywood movie star of the late 1940s and the 1950s. The son of Italian emigrants, he began studying to be a professional singer at the age of 16....
, John McCormack, Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior
Lauritz Melchior was a Danish and later American opera singer. He was the pre-eminent Wagnerian tenor of the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s, and has since come to be considered the quintessence of his voice type.-Biography:...
and Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker
Richard Tucker was an American operatic tenor.-Early life:Tucker was born Rivn Ticker in Brooklyn, New York, into a family of Romanian immigrants from Bessarabia. His father, Shmul Ticker, and mother Fanya-Tsipa Ticker had already adopted the surname "Tucker" by the time their son entered first...
; bass-baritone George London
George London
George London may be:*George London , Canadian operatic bass-baritone*George London *Sir George Ernest London, of the Newfoundland Commission of Government...
; bass Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
; pianists Van Cliburn
Van Cliburn
Harvey Lavan "Van" Cliburn Jr. is an American pianist who achieved worldwide recognition in 1958 at age 23, when he won the first quadrennial International Tchaikovsky Piano Competition in Moscow, at the height of the Cold War....
and Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Horowitz
Vladimir Samoylovich Horowitz was a Russian-American classical virtuoso pianist and minor composer. His technique and use of tone color and the excitement of his playing were legendary. He is widely considered one of the greatest pianists of the 20th century.-Life and early...
; violinists Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz
Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
and Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin
Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
; cellist Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Rostropovich
Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
; conductors Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan
Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
, Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy
Eugene Ormandy was a Hungarian-born conductor and violinist.-Early life:Born Jenő Blau in Budapest, Hungary, Ormandy began studying violin at the Royal National Hungarian Academy of Music at the age of five...
, Antal Dorati
Antal Doráti
Antal Doráti, KBE was a Hungarian-born conductor and composer who became a naturalized American citizen in 1947.-Biography:...
and Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer
Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
; composer-conductors Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, author, music lecturer and pianist. He was among the first conductors born and educated in the United States of America to receive worldwide acclaim...
, Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland
Aaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
and Igor Stravinsky
Igor Stravinsky
Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ; 6 April 1971) was a Russian, later naturalized French, and then naturalized American composer, pianist, and conductor....
; and composer-conductor-pianists Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Prokofiev
Sergei Sergeyevich Prokofiev was a Russian composer, pianist and conductor who mastered numerous musical genres and is regarded as one of the major composers of the 20th century...
and Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Sergei Vasilievich Rachmaninoff was a Russian composer, pianist, and conductor. Rachmaninoff is widely considered one of the finest pianists of his day and, as a composer, one of the last great representatives of Romanticism in Russian classical music...
.
CAMI’s founding and first decades are inextricably linked with the legendary figure of Arthur Judson
Arthur Judson
Arthur Leon Judson was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra...
, who played a seminal role in the development of classical music both as a modern business and as a major cultural presence in the electronic mass media of the 20th century. He was of particular influence in the fields of radio and recordings throughout the 1930s.
Trained as a concert violinist, Judson became a reporter for Musical America in 1907. His work led to a friendship with the new conductor of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra
As the fifth oldest orchestra in the United States, the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra has a legacy of fine music making as reflected in its performances in historic Music Hall, recordings, and international tours...
, a young man named Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
. This in turn, resulted in Judson’s becoming manager of the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
in 1915, after Stokowski became its director. The position served as the cornerstone for Judson’s career as a manager under the banner of Concert Management Arthur Judson.
By the mid-’20s, he was cited by The New York Times as "the leading American concert manager," managing the New York Philharmonic
New York Philharmonic
The New York Philharmonic is a symphony orchestra based in New York City in the United States. It is one of the American orchestras commonly referred to as the "Big Five"...
and the famed summertime concert series at the City College of New York’s Lewisohn Stadium, as well as the Philadelphia Orchestra
Philadelphia Orchestra
The Philadelphia Orchestra is a symphony orchestra based in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the United States. One of the "Big Five" American orchestras, it was founded in 1900...
and a growing roster of talented individuals.
With the rise of radio in the ’20s, he formed the Judson Radio Corporation in 1926, with a plan to supply classical performances to the new NBC radio network, formed that same year by RCA. When NBC opted to develop its own programming, Judson quickly organized a rival network, United Independent Broadcasters, in January 1927. Short on financing, the organization was renamed when the parent company of Columbia Records became a major partner. By September, the phonograph company sold its interest to William S. Paley
William S. Paley
William S. Paley was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.-Early life:...
, an ambitious young executive at a family-owned cigar company in Philadelphia. The fledgling network became known as the Columbia Broadcasting System, with Arthur Judson
Arthur Judson
Arthur Leon Judson was an artists' manager who also managed the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestra...
as its second largest stockholder.
As the musical needs of the growing network multiplied, Paley and Judson merged seven of the country’s leading independent concert bureaus in 1930 as Columbia Concerts Corporation, pooling the musical knowledge, commercial acumen and booking facilities of key figures in the concert management business. The companies that were merged included Concert Management Arthur Judson, the Wolfsohn Musical Bureau (the oldest concert bureau in America), the Metropolitan Musical Bureau, Evans & Salter, Haensel & Jones, the American Opera Company
American Opera Company
The American Opera Company was the name of four different opera companies active in the United States. The first company was a short-lived opera company founded in New York City in February, 1886 that lasted only one season...
and Community Concerts Service. The new firm served as a home base for managers whose rosters represented the most famous artists of the day and whose activities covered all of North America. The organization laid claim at the time to managing nearly two-thirds of the top concert artists in America.
William S. Paley
William S. Paley
William S. Paley was the chief executive who built Columbia Broadcasting System from a small radio network into one of the foremost radio and television network operations in the United States.-Early life:...
became the first chairman of the board of Columbia Concerts Corporation with Judson as president. Other officers of the new corporation included Frederick C. Schang, Jr., a former journalist from the New York Tribune who later became president of CAMI, and F.C. Coppicus, the founder of the Metropolitan Musical Bureau. Community Concerts, under the leadership of its founder, Ward French, continued to operate as a subsidiary serving to bring live classical music to smaller venues across the continent by means of prepaid subscription series. French later served as chairman of CAMI.
In 1938, CBS acquired Columbia Records
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
, its one-time parent company. By 1941, under pressure from government regulators, both CBS and NBC ended their longtime relationships with their respective talent management companies. The independent Columbia Concerts renamed itself as Columbia Artists Management Inc. in 1948.
Frederick Schang, president of CAMI from 1948 until 1959, managed in his long career such performers as Enrico Caruso, Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson
Paul Leroy Robeson was an American concert singer , recording artist, actor, athlete, scholar who was an advocate for the Civil Rights Movement in the first half of the twentieth century...
, Jussi Björling
Jussi Björling
Johan Jonatan "Jussi" Björling was a Swedish tenor. One of the leading operatic singers of the 20th Century, Björling appeared frequently at the Royal Opera House in London, La Scala in Milan, and the Metropolitan Opera in New York City as well as at other major European opera...
, Lily Pons
Lily Pons
Lily Pons was a French-American operatic soprano and actress who had an active career from the late 1920s through the early 1970s. As an opera singer she specialized in the coloratura soprano repertoire and was particularly associated with the title roles in Léo Delibes' Lakmé and Gaetano...
, David Oistrakh
David Oistrakh
David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
and the Trapp Family Singers. Subsequent presidents of CAMI have included Lawrence Evans, one of the founders, Kurt Weinhold, who started with the company as a salesman, and Ronald A. Wilford, who came to CAMI to create its theatrical division. Mr. Wilford remains chairman of the board of CAMI, as well as chief executive officer.
The principle of cooperation among independent managers, which first inspired the company’s formation, is still firmly in place at CAMI after nearly eight decades. Today, there are 25 managers active worldwide, with offices in New York and Berlin. The company was headquartered from 1959 until 2005 at 165 West 57th Street in Manhattan in a landmark building across from Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall
Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....
that was built as a dance studio in 1916. CAMI's corporate headquarters are now located nearby at 1790 Broadway, in a 1912 building at the corner of 58th Street.