Auditorium Magazine highlights Charlotte Lee as one of 14 Top Artist Management CEOs shaping the Arts Industry today
Primo Artists President and Founder Charlotte Lee is highlighted in Auditorium Magazine as one of 14 Top Artist Managers shaping the arts industry (Photo credit: Grittani Creative Ltd)
In its October 2020 cover story, South Korea’s Auditorium Magazine features Primo Artists President and Founder Charlotte Lee as one of the 14 Top CEOs of Artist Management Agencies who are shaping the arts industry today,
Other featured international colleagues from around the globe include Cornelia Schmid of KD SCHMID, Jasper Parrott from HarrisonParrott, John Evans and Soung-ah Choi of IMG Artists, Libby Abrahams of Keynote Artist Management, Sonia Simmenauer of Impresariat Simmenauer, Llorenç Caballero of Ibermúsica, Jacob Soelberg of Nordic Artists, Shannen Liu and Grzegorz Kotow of Liu Kotow, Koichi Iriyama of AMATI and Jun-ichi Nihei of Japan Arts.
See below for a translation of an excerpt from the article. Click here to view the original article.
14 Top Artist Management CEOs Shaping the Arts Industry
By Mira Lee
Auditorium Magazine
October 22, 2020
Founded in 2015 and based in New York, Primo Artists is now celebrating its fifth anniversary. It is considered the most prestigious agency in North America with a selective roster of only 10 artists, including Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, James Gaffigan, Wynton Marsalis, Nicola Benedetti and Seong-Jin Cho. From its remote office to its newly launched Social Media Division, it is attracting attention for its innovative and contemporary approach that utilizes modern technology practices.
Lee’s passion for music originated from a young age. Having started playing the violin at the age of 4, she continued her musical journey as a violinist until her college graduation. Upon graduating from the University of Texas at Austin, Charlotte dove into the world of arts management. After joining IMG Artists in 1998, Lee was appointed the agency’s youngest vice president at age 30. In 2015, Lee decided to leave IMG Artists after 17 years to establish her own management company, Primo Artists.
You were a fine violinist, but you shifted your interest to the world of music business. What made you join the classical management industry?
In the summer following my graduation from university, I had a law-school admission in hand but no passion to pursue a profession as a lawyer. I realized that what I truly wanted to do was to attend concerts all the time and to find a way of doing that as my profession.
You joined IMG in 1998 and become the youngest vice president at age 30. After 20 years of experience in the music industry, why and how did you decide to start your own company?
During my 17 years at IMG Artists, I was blessed to have as my mentors three legends in the industry: Edna Landau, Elizabeth Sobol and Charlie Hamlen. After they left the company, I wanted to offer my artists a more focused, nimble approach in maximizing opportunities and visibility for them. So out of that, Primo Artists was born.
Primo Artists is considered one of the hottest agencies today.
We are known in the industry as being the most modern agency in the world. We were the first agency to open as a remote company, long before COVID ever made it possible for agencies to imagine running their businesses outside the context of an office environment. I never felt it was important to have an office to keep my team accountable because I only hire team members who are self-motivated, autonomous, committed and trustworthy. We have always utilized technology to the fullest extent and are in constant contact through iMessage, Slack, FaceTime, Zoom and Whereby, and all our files have been in the cloud since the start of the agency.
What kind of efforts and changes are you making in your company? How are you keeping up with the trends of today and what are the advantages of working remotely?
My priority has always been to put the money back into the business so we could have a personalized approach in how we manage and serve our artists and how we do business with our presenters – being present and hands-on and dedicating the time to provide full service and to work strategically from top to bottom which includes promotion of each engagement to social media for our artists and beyond.
You also specialize in managing Social Media channels.
We have the largest and most engaged social-media following of any management agency in the business — with 20,000 followers across all three of our channels — and most everyone in the industry follows our and our artists’ activity all around the world. We recently launched a Social Media Department and are managing 15 channels, signing new artists and growing rapidly in this arena.
Who was your first artist in the music industry and how do you remember him/her? Do you have any memorable moments from the encounter?
The first artist I ever signed was Nicola Benedetti, in 2005, shortly after she won the BBC Young Musician of the Year. I remember being captivated as she walked out on the stage of Merkin Hall in New York and not being able to take my eyes off her. She had such an easy stage presence that drew me and all the audience members in, and the sound coming out of her violin was so personal and absolutely mesmerizing. To this day, her sound is immediately recognizable to me in whatever she plays, and I remain as captivated by her performances as I did that day 15 years ago.
Most classical music managements in South Korea have a strong preference for “music majors” when hiring. I would like to know how many of your colleagues majored in music and what skills and competencies you find important in artist management.
Most of our team members have majored or minored in music and if they don’t have degrees in music, they are trained classical musicians. It is essential to have a strong background in classical music, be detail-oriented and to have a deep passion and commitment for what we do. Having a graduate degree in Performing Arts Administration is not as important to me since it is the craft of the art which is most important, not the degree or the study of our business. We joke in the industry that two years at a starting position in the music business in equivalent to a Master’s Degree in Arts Administration.
What is the ideal relationship amongst artists and their agencies?
Each agency and manager has a different view of what an ideal relationship with an artist should be. For me, I have always found that every artist-manager relationship must be based on trust and open communication. The close nature of these relationships allows me to listen better and to understand what the artist is truly about and what distinguishes each artist from another, and we are therefore aligned in our goals. There is a mutual trust and confidence in each other’s abilities. This means there are no reservations, hesitations or doubt on either side, so we can plow ahead and fulfill our dreams together.
In the United States, how is the support for classical music?
The United States is known for not supporting classical music and not providing government support for the arts. The arts and culture industry in our country brings in $877 Billion a year – 4.5% of our Gross Domestic Product. Yet the National Endowment of the Arts, which is in jeopardy of being slashed and eliminated each year, has an annual budget of only $162 Million, which is .0001847% of our GDP and barely half the annual budget of the Metropolitan Opera!
What is the major damage you have suffered from the recent pandemic? Was there any government support or subsidy policy for this situation that was helpful to your company?
COVID-19 has been the greatest weapon of mass destruction on our industry, particularly in the United States. Without government support or an economically viable financial model to return to performances before 2022, our agencies – which are mostly all 100% commission-based – are in danger of shutting down by the end of 2020. We have all felt the collective tremor at the news that the most historic, reputable agency in our country, Columbia Artists, closed its doors on August 31, 2020. The need for a Congressional relief plan for the arts sector has never been more urgent and this is why I founded PAMAC – Performing Arts Managers and Agents Coalition– a coalition comprised of all 165 U.S. agencies in the performing arts business.
What activities have been led by PAMAC?
In lobbying our legislators, we are impressing upon them the disproportionate effect that COVID-19 has had on our industry and the dire need we have for economic support. On August 4, 2020, we had a conference call with Senate Major Leader Mitch McConnell’s Senior Staff – as the only arts group in the industry who his Senior Staff took a meeting with – and it was our priority to make them aware of the plight of our industry and give them an opportunity to rescue our industry, which has not stopped dedicating all our efforts to the education of our youth, the healing of our society, and the revitalization of our economy. Without legislative reform, it is inevitable that more businesses in our industry will close their doors and our industry will become a shadow of its former self.
My aim is to equitably represent all segments of the arts industry – non-profit organizations, arts businesses and agencies, artists, gig workers and beyond – without leaving anyone out, in our quest for government support.
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