Get to know… Artist Management
24/4/2023
HarrisonParrott is very proud to introduce to you to some of our Artist Management team
Phoebe Goddard: Artist Coordinator
My love of music and the arts came from my grandmother, who was a pianist and vocal teacher, and my mother, who was a ballerina. At age five, I started learning the violin and attended the Yehudi Menuhin School from age seven. It had always been my plan to pursue a career as a professional violinist, but due to an injury, I was forced to stop shortly after completing my bachelor’s degree at the Royal College of Music.
Suffering through my injury taught me to appreciate music even more, listening to an enormous amount of repertoire instead of just practising! I began to learn and appreciate more orchestral and chamber repertoire, delving deep into my academic studies of music history.
Due to my desire to stay within the musical field despite not being able to perform myself, I started internships at IMG Artists, and Opera Holland Park. I then went on to work at the Classical Opera Company as an Artistic Administrator and as a Concerts and Orchestra Manager for several years at the Royal Academy of Music in London, where I worked as part of the team running a wide range of different ensembles and concerts.
I joined HP in May 2022 as an Artist Coordinator. I currently work on logistics, contracting, social media and supporting my artists throughout their busy engagement schedules.
Wren Harries-Eccles: Intern, Artist Co-ordinator
My passion for music began aged 7 after receiving a violin as a Christmas present. I became quickly involved in the youth and string orchestras in Milton Keynes which only furthered my fondness for the instrument. In these orchestras, I performed in many venues across the UK, including the Royal Albert Hall, Birmingham Town Hall, and Birmingham Symphony Hall. My favourite memory from this time was performing in a side-by-side concert with the Milton Keynes City Orchestra in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4.
I achieved a scholarship to study music at the University of Liverpool and furthered my studies earning a master’s degree in performance and pedagogy. I took particular interest in the modules that focused on music business, and it was then that my interest in the classical music industry and artist management grew.
After graduation, I worked as an administrative assistant at an IT company whilst wanting to transfer my skills and knowledge to work in this industry. I joined HarrisonParrott in September 2022 as an artist coordinator intern, and I have thoroughly enjoyed delving into the world of artist coordination and am looking forward to furthering my career within the industry.
Nadim Jauffur: Artist Coordinator
There wasn’t much in the way of live classical music where I grew up, but I picked up the piano around the age of 11, and with the help of my teachers, the internet and my grandmother’s record collection, pieced together something of a comprehensive musical education before eventually studying music at the University of Sheffield, and then Instrumental & Vocal Composition at the University of Manchester. I got fed up with studying during my master’s degree and started working at the BBC Philharmonic in various roles and then, a couple of years later, at the BBC Proms, tending to my own projects on the side, throughout which focused on commissioning new music and diversifying classical music programming.
I’m going to work in artistic planning one day, and I believe the most effective path towards that is to understand the industry as fully as possible, so when I saw an opportunity to jump into the artist management side of things, I thought I would seize the chance to learn more fully about the everyday needs of classical artists. Working as an Artist Coordinator for the past six months has been a super valuable experience, allowing me to meet numerous new faces in the industry, teaching me what makes an orchestra attractive to artists and vice versa, and the myriad of considerations that go into programming a season.
Ance Kolibere: Associate Artist Manager
While my family is not really linked to music directly in any way, Latvians are a singing nation, so music has always been a huge part of my upbringing. When I had just turned five, I wanted to play the violin, but I was too small to handle the instrument properly, and the school offered piano lessons because I could almost reach an octave. I remember having lessons with my teacher twice a week while other kids from my preschool group had their nap time. I played the piano for over 10 years and moved to percussion instruments for a couple of years after that until I left my hometown to study in Riga.
I studied music management and business and started my first job while I was still in college. For several years I worked at a concert agency as a promoter and looked after the backstage of the biggest Baltic festivals and venues with pop and rock superstars.
I continued my professional journey by joining a very creative team in Liepaja to open the Great Amber concert hall in 2015, and the venue quickly became my second home. Over more than four years as Head of Production at the Great Amber, I met a lot of HP artists and worked with my current colleagues from the promoter’s side. It’s been very useful to have worked on both sides of our field; my experience as a concert promoter helps me better understand the needs of the various promoters I work with daily.
Currently, I’m an Associate Manager and have worked with my amazing HP family and extremely talented artists for four and a half years. I’m based in Latvia, and every minute of my free time goes into restoring my 103-year-old home in the wild west of Kurzeme, surrounded by nature, enjoying occasional forest animal visits, training my green thumb in the garden and developing my skills in woodworking.
Theodor Küng: Associate Artist Manager
I grew up in a small village in Switzerland, where the main career choices were either animal husbandry or timber farming. My mother, who had mixed feelings about both cows and chainsaws, strongly encouraged me to take up music as an alternative. My father, a pragmatist, made sure I knew where the woodworking tools were housed and how to use them while also paying for violin lessons.
I came to the UK in 2009 to read Music at Clare College Cambridge, where I was awarded the Royalton Kisch Prize for academic excellence and the Donald Wort Prize for the highest final audition mark of my year. After completing postgraduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music, I began performing with UK orchestras and made regular appearances as guest principal and/or sub-principal with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Welsh National Opera, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Royal Northern Sinfonia, and for four years was Deputy Principal Violin II of English National Ballet.
After health issues forced me to give up performing, I joined HarrisonParrott in May 2021 as an Artist Coordinator and was promoted to Associate Artist Manager in January 2023. I’m now privileged to work with some of our agency’s most sought-after artists including Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Péter Eötvös, Nobuyuki Tsujii, Akiko Suwanai, and Jean Rondeau. Recently I began volunteering with the HarrisonParrott Foundation to promote music education and support for the music industry among the young.
Live music in good company remains one of my favourite pastimes. I enjoy visiting old buildings (extra points awarded for timber frames, pointed arches, and flying buttresses), camping in the woods, and writing; I spent much of the Covid-19 pandemic copywriting ads for radio and, following modest accolades for both poetry and prose, published my first novel in April 2021.
Ariane Levy-Künstler: Associate Director, Artist Management
My first musical shock happened as a child when I heard Radu Lupu play Beethoven piano concerto No.5 at a concert in Paris. The piano, which I learned to play, was my first musical love and the door to the world of classical music, alongside many legendary recordings. Later on, while I was studying Liberal Arts and Political Sciences in Paris, I became determined to pursue a career in the classical music industry. I worked summer jobs at the Verbier and la Roque d’Antheron music festivals, and decided to follow a Master’s Degree in cultural management at Sciences Po Paris.
I started my career on the promoter side. I worked for about ten years in major concert halls and opera houses in France (such as Cite de la Musique, Salle Pleyel, Opera de Paris, Opera de Lille), and in London (Southbank Centre). After meeting Jasper Parrott, I became convinced by the prospect of becoming an artist agent, working alongside exceptional musicians to help them thrive artistically and professionally.
Working as an agent is all about creating strong relationships, nurturing and promoting talents, and making exceptional artistic projects happen. I am proud to collaborate with extraordinary artists and wonderful colleagues to try to spread classical music to every corner of the world. Together, we aim to create bold projects, new music and hopefully concerts and recordings that will make history and leave the audience lifted with a positive impact and memorable emotions.
