Stephen Hough

The success of a manager is not measurable in the way it would be with a banker. It is about psychology, experience, contacts and the personal touch. You need to be able to read each other. There’s frustration in all walks of life and certainly when you’re constantly travelling around the world. There are tough days and wonderful days. A manager has to know the psychology of when to push you or pull you back; when to have a no-nonsense or a sympathetic approach. They must know when a crisis is really a crisis and when it’s just a bad breakfast that will be forgotten in a couple of hours. They need to know how to calm someone down in difficult situations. This often happens with orchestral rehearsals (which can be full of anxiety), when meeting a conductor for the first time, dealing with difficult pianos or bad hotels. 

No artist is ever loved the same way everywhere, and it’s important for a manager to know when an orchestra or conductor doesn’t like an artist, so they don’t keep calling every week for dates. It’s like this for every artist, but we all have fragile egos and managers have to be careful. If I’m told a date doesn’t work, I read between the lines; but things change, and sometimes conductors with whom one hasn’t worked want to book you. That all goes on behind the scenes, and perhaps it’s best not to know! 

It isn’t just about selling a diary – it’s a human relationship. A manager has to protect the mental health of their artists. It’s good to be busy, but bad to be too busy. Sometimes when we’re on a high we accept more than we should. It’s important for managers to keep that in mind. They have to say, ​‘Today you don’t mind playing in Tokyo one night, Sydney the next and then Vienna and Helsinki, but when it comes to that week you will regret it.’ 

Leila Josefowicz

Artists need many different things from agents. We need them to have a mixture of knowledge, empathy and business smarts. We need them to be diligent and professional when we need connections with composers, artists, conductors and administrators, but also to be able to handle it when we’re so exhausted that we can’t make a concert next week. 

Andreas Scholl

Being a manager is more than getting the best fee out of a concert, booking as many concerts as possible and creating PR. It’s about developing a strategy for each individual artist and working out appropriate repertoire and concerts. They need to be aware of the changing circumstances between the ages of 30 and 50 and adapt the strategy so that I will still be singing when I’m 65. Maybe I won’t sing Giulio Cesare any more but I will be able to do recitals. An agent must have this in mind. 

Jess Gillam

An artist needs a manager who is willing to say no, and for me, someone who is conscious of the fact that I’m in the early stages of my career. I’m at a nurturing stage at this point and I need a manager who can help me to balance working out the best time do things, taking up amazing offers and developing as a musician. 

Patricia Kopatchinskaja

A manager is the interface between the artist and the concert organisers. To be successful they have to have a complete understanding and believe in the artist’s aims and possibilities. In my case, they have to make my mission their mission, which is more difficult than managing an artist who only plays mainstream repertoire in a normal way. 

Han-Na Chang

For me, having wonderful mentors was particularly great during my childhood and youth. They each had different advice to give, but thinking about it now, it all came down to taking the time to grow and mature, being curious about and studying broadly the humanities, and not missing out on my childhood. 

So, for the young artists of today – especially when the pace of sharing content has become even faster with the various social media channels – I would say they need the people around them to acknowledge their need for the space and time to develop and grow at their own pace, to find their own individual voice. 

Ten attributes of a top agent:

1. Empathy
2. Faith in the artistic mission 
3. Strategic thinking
4. Understanding of change 
5. Business savvy
6. Honesty
7. Calm in a crisis 
8. Adaptability
9. Protectiveness
10. Ability to say no