Doors keep swinging at Askonas Holt
NewsThe churn of artists at the San Francisco-owned London agency continues.
Angela Gheorghiu and Simon O’Neill led the stampede for the exits.
Conductor Ariane Matiakh is among a raft of new signings.
Last night, rising violinist Karen Gomyo quit Askonas for cloase rivals IMG, where she will be managed by the Kathryn Enticott boutique. Gomyo said: ”I feel extremely grateful to have found an artistic home within this wonderfully enthusiastic, open-minded, forward-thinking, and compassionate team.’
Also leaving Askonas is the German conductor David Afkham. He has signed with K D Schmid.
We hear that five more Askonas artists are edging towards the egress.
I worked there many years ago. It wasn’t exactly a cutting edge place of work and it doesn’t surprise me that other agencies would do a better job on this fast moving multi media environment – classical music has to keep adapting
Looks like Askonas is becoming AshCan-as…which is sad because it always had a very progressive and productive reputation! Ah, the stark inevitability and the vagaries of “change”!
Georghiu is yesterday’s news. Askonas Holt is constantly adding fantastic young opera singers to its roster. They made some mis-steps recently but they are doing quite well.
So is Simon, for that matter. Too much of a liability- they are better off without him.
Yesterday’s news?
Are musicians disposable commodities? And when will the “fantastic young opera singers” become “yesterday’s news”? If Askonas is “constantly” adding young fantastic etc., that would kind of prove the the disposable-commodity idea, n’est-ce pas?
“……compassionate team….”
That’s a new one