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How can classical music be successfully organized without government subsidies? Our guest is Andreas Schessl, managing director of the MünchenMusik Group—one of the largest privately organized classical music promoters in Europe.
With around 600 events per year, MünchenMusik demonstrates that culture can also work in a for-profit model. The discussion focuses on how a privately financed organizer operates in the classical music market, what entrepreneurial risks are involved, and what opportunities this presents for program design, audience development, and future viability.
🗣️ Topics of discussion:
- How can culture become less dependent on government subsidies?
- The economic risks of a privately organized event organizer
- Program design for different target groups
- Target group communication & personalized marketing
- Entrepreneurship in the classical music market: between cultural mission and economic efficiency
📍 About MünchenMusik: The MünchenMusik Group is one of the leading concert organizers in the German-speaking world. As a privately organized company, it stages around 600 events each year—from large international orchestra concerts to innovative crossover formats. This makes MünchenMusik a rare example of how cultural offerings can be successfully implemented even without public subsidies.
Karsten Witt is the founder and managing director of Karsten Witt Musikmanagement GmbH and has been one of the defining figures in international classical music management for decades. His previous roles include founder of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, artistic director of the Konzerthaus Wien, senior vice president at Deutsche Grammophon, and artistic director of the Southbank Centre in London. In all these roles, he has operated at the interface between art, the market, and institutions—both nationally and internationally.
In this conversation, Karsten Witt speaks openly about the expectations young artists have for their careers, the reality behind the process of being accepted into an artist agency, and the question of how long the classic agency model will remain viable in a changing industry. The discussion also touches on existential fears in the classical music market, responsibility in management, and the structural future of the classical music industry as a whole.This episode provides insights into power structures, decision-making processes, and perspectives—and makes it clear why career paths in classical music are rarely linear.🗣️ Topics of discussion:
- Young artists' expectations for their careers
- Admission processes and selection mechanisms of artist agencies
- Longevity and change in the agency business model
- Existential fears and economic reality in the classical music market
- The future of the international classical music industry
The German Gents combine classical singing with modern pop and entertainment aesthetics, reaching an audience of millions on social media. With over 700,000 followers on TikTok and 200,000 on Instagram, they have built up an international fan base independently of traditional structures. In addition to creative collaborations with GeloRevoice® and Viva con Agua, their performance at the NFL game in Berlin also attracted a lot of attention.
The conversation with Raphael Riebesell and Marcel Raschke, two of the four German Gents, highlights opportunities and obstacles in the classical music market, young musicians' personal existential fears, and how tradition, entertainment, and entrepreneurial spirit can be combined. An episode that inspires us to retell classical music in a new way.🗣️ Topics of conversation:
- Viral popularity and social media success in the classical music sector
- Bias and gatekeeping in the classical music market
- Existential fears and reality of young professional musicians
- Establishing partnerships and brand collaborations
🗣️ Topics of discussion:
- The development of sheet music sales in the international classical music market
- Print editions vs. digital sheet music
- The Henle Library app with over 100,000 users
- Differentiation through a scientific approach and original text quality
Dr. Norbert Gertsch is managing director of G. Henle Verlag, one of the world's leading music publishers of Urtext editions. In this interview, Dr. Gertsch provides deep insights into the development of the international music publishing business: from historical business models to the transformation brought about by digitalization, to the question of how the highest editorial quality can be maintained in an increasingly digital world. An episode about tradition and innovation, scientific precision – and the future of musical sources between paper and apps. G. Henle Verlag was founded in 1948 and has stood for the highest Urtext quality for decades, based on musicological research and critical source work. With an extensive catalog of key works of classical music and the development of the Henle Library app, which now has over 100,000 users, the publisher combines editorial excellence with digital usage concepts for musicians worldwide.
🗣️ Topics of discussion:
- Job profile of an artist agency: between management, strategy, and mediation
- The business model of an artist agency in the international classical music market
- Economic efficiency vs. artistic substance: conflict or necessary complement?
- Focus and positioning within the artist list
- The dark side of the classical music industry: pressure, dependencies, and the invisible
- Responsibility of agencies
Arnold Simmenauer is the managing director of Impresariat Simmenauer GmbH, an internationally active artist agency focusing on chamber music ensembles and soloists. In this interview, Arnold Simmenauer provides deep insights into the work of an artist agency: from business models and economic realities to strategic artist development and the less visible downsides of the classical music industry. An episode about market mechanisms, idealism, responsibility—and the question of how substance and economic efficiency can go hand in hand. Founded in 1989 by Sonia Simmenauer, Impresariat Simmenauer GmbH quickly developed into one of the leading international agencies for ensembles, soloists, conductors, and chamber music projects. After moving from Hamburg to Berlin in 2009 and the generational change of management to her son Arnold Simmenauer, the agency now stands for comprehensive artistic support, strategic development, and a worldwide network of event organizers, festivals, orchestras, opera houses, and labels.
🗣️ Topics of discussion:
- Chamber music for 20 years: The origins of the Goldmund Quartet
- The first agency, HarrisonParrot
- Economic setup & international coordination of an ensemble
- Fees, income, and realistic financing models for string quartets
- The chamber music market: structures, opportunities, and changes
- Europe vs. the US: Two markets, two systems?
- Private vs. public funding in the cultural sector
- Ticket prices and economic factors in the concert business
- Your own support association: Why a quartet needs one
- The Goldmund Festival: Vision, Structure & Future
The Goldmund Quartet—Florian Schötz (violin), Pinchas Adt (violin), Christoph Vandory (viola), and Raphael Paratore (cello)—is one of the most influential string quartets of its generation. The four musicians have known each other since childhood and have been playing together in the same lineup for almost twenty years. With international competition wins, outstanding album releases, and tours of the most important music capitals, the quartet has established itself as a fixture in the global chamber music scene in recent years. 2024/25 will see debuts at renowned festivals, an extensive US and Japan tour, as well as their own Goldmund Festival and the newly founded Goldmund Academy.
With around 300,000 artists listed and 6 million users, Operabase is the most extensive data platform in the classical music sector. It covers opera productions, concerts, musicals, and ballets worldwide—and serves as a central research and casting tool for opera houses, orchestral institutions, agencies, and cultural professionals. The platform's immense wealth of metadata reveals international trends, repertoire developments, and artistic movements like no other source.
Ulrike Köstinger has been CEO of Operabase, the world's leading data platform for opera, concerts, musicals and ballet, since 2023. Her career path - from internships at the Salzburg Festival and La Scala in Milan to working as a brand manager at L'Oréal and setting up the streaming service CueTV - has taken her to the top of a company that has been shaping the international classical music world for 30 years.
🗣️ Topics of the interview:
- Professional career: From La Scala in Milan to the tech & SaaS industry
- Operabase: What has made the platform so relevant for 30 years?
- Scope of services & metadata: Artist profiles, repertoire, productions, trends
- Economic structure: How is Operabase financed as a SaaS company?
- Operabase as a digital cultural advisor: 6 million users & their needs
- Experience classical music digitally: Opportunities, risks & new audience structures
- Will AI lead to a cultural boom?
- Which classic business models are truly sustainable?
- Private funding & financing in an international context
From a local music festival to an internationally acclaimed platform: Heidelberger Frühling has consistently expanded its profile and now combines formats such as the Lied Festival, String Quartet Festival, Chamber Music Plus, the "Das Lied" competition and the Classic Scouts. The focus remains on the music festival itself, which has been shaped and further developed by pianist Igor Levit as Co-Artistic Director together with Thorsten Schmidt since the 2022/23 season.
📍 About Heidelberger Frühling:With a budget of around 5.3 million euros and an exceptionally high proportion of private funding, Heidelberger Frühling is a special case in the German cultural landscape. Where many festivals are predominantly state-funded, here it is possible to actively involve regional companies and private supporters - a model that has gained great recognition and is an example of how sustainable cultural funding can succeed.
🗣️ Topics in the episode:
- The emergence and further development of the Heidelberg Spring
- The task of a modern music festival
- Audience development & audience retention
- Changes in audience interests over the course of time
- Funding & private funding partnerships
- Classical music festivals as a location-independent license model
How does the Konzerthaus Dortmund manage to make music accessible to everyone? Dr. Raphael von Hoensbroech has been Managing Director & Artistic Director of the Konzerthaus Dortmund since 2018. This interview deals with the exciting question of how a modern concert hall can remain successful in times of change - culturally, economically and socially.
