IMG Artists and Jennifer Spencer Consultancy have signed Angus Webster, 19, for general management.
Angus came joint first and won the orchestral prize at the 2018 Jorma Panula International Conducting Competition in Finland.
He is about to study at Colburn in LA with Esa-Pekka Salonen.
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Good grief, why sign him now? He won’t be twiddling his thumbs at Colburn with Esa-Pekka Salonen. Give him a chance to develop, learn, question, experiment, make music with his talented peers before sending him out on the circuit.
Jennifer Spencer specialises in mentoring young conductors right at the start of their careers, so is a perfect choice alongside his studies with EPS… I doubt he’ll be sent out on the circuit anytime soon!
It is telling that this young Brit is going to the USA (Colburn School of Music, University of Southern California) to study with EPS and others.
By the way, he made his conducting debut at the age of 12 with the Cornwall Symphony Orchestra.
I always think it is important for a conductor not to have any lengthy high-level experience as an orchestral musician before launching a career. To think that their ‘interpretations’ might be compromised by knowing some of the repertoire from the inside as a player is just plain scary. Thank God for competitions which are able, so successfully, to sort the wheat from the chaff when it comes to assessing musical integrity and overall quality of musicianship, and then to have management companies which can offer so magnanimously to help with the youngster’s learning curve and musical education and, of course, to protect them from exploitation…. Educational institutions also, which shun filthy lucre and concentrate on the all-round improvement of the young. Good luck to them all – I am sure that orchestral players world-wide will be as excited and supportive as I in launching this new super-talent upon the world!
Nobody else us worried about this? I beg he is not engaged with my orchestra before he turns 40… but, you know, nowadays agencies decide who is engaged as soloist and guest conductor, so I would not surprised he is hired for the abonemment season in a couple of tears because he will be “energetic, fresh, attractive, and original”. All the things that audiences love but us, orchestra musicians, don’t really care about.