Agency chief’s wife is playing restaurants
UncategorizedWe hear that the confessed fraudster Barrett Wissman has all but severed his active participation in IMG Artists, which he used to own. He has also been selling off assets in Texas. The agency’s Russian co-owner Alexander Shustorovich is now the main player.
Meanwhile Wissman’s wife, the Russian cellist Nina Kotova, has embarked on a new venture, in the kitchens of an expensive Roman restaurant.
Barrett Wissman should never have been allowed back as Chairman of IMG Artists after he had temporarily handed over for 3 years to its founder Charles Hamlen. Hamlen was universally admired and loved and his death after surviving his bout with leukaemia was desperately sad. But Edna Landau could surely have been approached about taking over again and avoiding cellists who had never had much of a career.
IMG Artists never achieved the sort of international recognition it seemed it might be out to achieve when IMG bought out Hamlen/Landau. IMG’s main objective seemed to be to wipe the floor with CAMI. After McCormack’s sudden death, IMG Artists should just have been left to die. The mega profits it was after never worked for a classical music agency apart from a few events and artists. Wissman’s attempt to start Festivals in various parts of the world all died early deaths. Ms. Kotova was certainly not one of the artists whose career it helped. Perhaps she’ll make more of a success with restaurants.