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🗣️ 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.
