Breaking: Major London agent calls time on the business

The veteran conductors’ agent Linda Marks is hanging up her baton.

Linda, who has mentored untold numbers of Finnish prospects at HarrisonParrott, has some personal issues to attend to and is ready to move on to the next phase of her life.

She will be missed – not just by the artists who pestered her morning, noon and night, but by the rest of the business where she was liked and respected for her integrity and straightforwardness. Her word could always be trusted.

Her conductors included Edo De Waart, David Zinman, Lawrence Foster, Sakari Oramo, Eivind Gullberg Jensen, Hannu Lintu.

The official statement:

Linda Marks, Executive Vice-Chairman at HarrisonParrott, has decided that the time has come for her to step back from her current role so that she can take some time out for a nice long break and spend more quality time with her family as well as pursuing other interests.
 
She will leave HarrisonParrott at the end of June 2019 but will continue to work fully with everyone as normal until then and participate actively in managing the transition and succession for her artists, a process which is well underway with the Directors and Associate Directors.
 
Jasper Parrott, Executive Chairman, comments: “Linda has very specifically asked that she should be free to take a good break but all at HarrisonParrott very much hope to be able to find the right way to continue to have access to her incredible knowledge and experience in a different capacity in the future as a member of the extended HarrisonParrott family.
 
Her contribution to HarrisonParrott, to the artists and to the industry has been immense and incalculable and is widely recognised as such not only by all at HarrisonParrott but internationally throughout our profession. Speaking for myself her wisdom, empathy, wit and business acuity over the 40 years we have worked together have been towers of strength for which I shall always be grateful. She will be greatly missed.”
 
Linda Marks comments: “It has been a great honour and privilege for me to be part of the wonderful HarrisonParrott family for what amounts to over half my life. Jasper has been a great inspiration not only to me but to many colleagues and to so many in our business. I shall greatly miss all my dear colleagues and artists and wish them every possible success in the future. So I hope it’s ‘au revoir’ not goodbye”.