Ex-IMG boss swans over to CAMI
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norman lebrecht
July 20, 2016
We understand that Stefana Atlas, one of a batch of IMG bosses who left the company in a 2014 bloodletting, is getting ready to move her desk and her artists into arch-rival CAMI.
Stefana, who worked as Kurt Masur’s assistant for many years, knows the business inside out.
She represents a small group of mostly young artists, led by the fast-rising Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, new music director at Birmingham’s CBSO.
The deal is that she gets to pool resources with the veteran Doug Sheldon, senior Vice President & Managing Director at CAMI and one of the last people in that edifice with frontline artist credibility.
This is a very good fit for Stefana and for Doug, who is Anne-Sophie Mutter’s main agent.
It leaves IMG looking dumb (but they’re maybe used to that).
UPDATE: Press release issued later in the day:
Stefana Atlas will join Columbia Artists Management LLC on August 1, 2016 as Artist Manager and Senior Vice President.
Doug Sheldon, Managing Director and Senior Vice President of CAMI LLC, said “Ms. Atlas brings to us experience, professionalism and an international profile and will be a major partner in expanding our representation of conductors and soloists and special projects.”
The Sheldon Office, known for representing several of the world’s leading international artists and for being a pre-eminent tour representative of the world’s major symphony Orchestras, will be known as the Sheldon/Atlas Office and will include conductors Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla, Ankush Kumar Bahl, Andris Poga and Markus Poschner as well as instrumentalists, Iveta Apkalna, Nicolas Dautricourt, Xiayin Wang and Xavier de Maistre currently managed by Ms. Atlas
Stefana Atlas’ experience includes working with Kurt Masur at the New York Philharmonic and Masur Music International and as consultant to Orchestre National de France. She has also served as consultant to the American Friends of the Mendelssohn Foundation, Senior Vice President of IMG Artists and founder and director of Bolero Artists Management.
R. Douglas Sheldon
Senior Vice President & Managing Director
Columbia Artists Management LLC
1790 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Why exactly does ‘person leaves job in 2014’ then ‘person gets new job in 2016’ equal ‘old employer must be stupid’? Looking at IMG’s artist roster I think they can probably survive the loss of someone who only worked for them for a year (according to your linked post).
I agree, this vendetta against IMG seems oddly personal. Much like the current political system where folks focus on the negativity of the opposing candidate instead of promoting the positive aspects of the candidates they support, this blog is fixated on negatively spinning anything that happens that even remotely involves IMG. Why not focus on the aspects of management companies you admire, instead of drudging up years old “news.”
On a positive note, congratulations to Stefana Atlas on this wonderful achievement!
GOOD LUCK and HAPPY LANDING
Best
sheldon soffer
Err . . “wonderful achievement” in joining CAMI? Come on! CAMI was once the largest and most feared agency in the world. If is now a shadow of its former self. It used to manage the affairs of around 100+ of the world’s top conductors. Now it’s list is a third of that size of which less than a handful of those with regular work could be regarded as “top international”. Few of its vocal list are regulars in the world’s major opera houses or stages – apart perhaps from the ones now very near the ends of their careers. Its instrumental soloist list which used to be huge is now just 22, although admittedly impressive. Of its six listed stage directors, with one exception they are well on in years, one being in his 90s and another in his 80s.
Or, as in Wilford’s days, are some of the best artists being kept of the general list? Nowhere can I see the name Lang Lang. Has he left CAMI?
In the current state of affairs, landing a job at one of the top agencies in the country is indeed a wonderful achievement. Of course the CAMI roster has changed since the “golden days” – that’s life! It’s companies and people that don’t adapt to that change who we should be really worried about!
CAMI always paid slave wages, hence their perpetual revolving door. It’s appalling how much managerial talent Wilford allowed to walk away, rather than paying those agents what they were worth. Clearly, Wilford’s attitude was “Apres moi, le deluge”. He didn’t give a damn what would happen to CAMI after he was gone.