In many respects, Hazard Chase is not a typical artist management company, explains James Brown.
Based in Cambridge, because of the generosity of my original partners in the venture who offered office accommodation here, and established by people who had not previously worked in the field, it must have looked certain to fail in many people?s eyes. I was a restless viola player in the London Philharmonic who knew little or nothing about the hard work put in by so many people in order to make it possible for me to earn a living.
Several factors made it possible for the company to develop. The huge technological changes during the 1990s made the world a smaller place and a company?s physical location became less important. Indeed, even the major London companies were no longer all in central locations. Important artists such as the Endellion String Quartet and Martin Roscoe committed to us early on and showed great loyalty and support as we built the business around them. Although the music industry is rather London oriented, a steady flow of excellent people were happy to move to Cambridge and enjoy a much improved quality of life. Perhaps most importantly of all, we established a clear vision of what we wanted to achieve at a very early stage ? not so much in terms of specifics, but rather a commitment to quality and style. Like most growing businesses there have been many changes, some mistakes and the odd U-turn, but in character and aspirations, this is identifiably the same company.
I had been warned that entering the concert agency world would be rather like swimming amongst sharks. All industries have a few I suppose, and we?ve certainly had an interesting experience or two. There is competition but also collaboration between agencies, and most people have the sense to realise that the two can co-exist.
We have always felt that Hazard Chase should be a broad-based music management company. One of the more productive uses I made of my free time during my LPO days was to read Mark McCormack?s books about the early days of IMG, and I was convinced by the picture he painted of a network of interlinked businesses all feeding each other. As a result, our core business of artist management is supported and enhanced by activities such as event promotion, concert management, public relations and marketing, touring, sponsorship, consultancy, recording services, independent radio production and other media interests.
We were initially associated with chamber music and soloists, and then with early music. There is a little less competition from the major agencies in these fields and it is easier to develop a reasonable level of business and to begin to establish a reputation. In due course we started to work with conductors, and most recently with opera singers and composers.
There is no magic secret to working in this field. You need intelligent, committed and well-organised people, who can take the daily ups and downs and remain optimistic and idealistic. It is a vocational job and you have to believe in the artists you represent and care about the end product ? the performance. Everyone I know who is successful in this business works very hard indeed. Sometimes it feels as if nothing we try to initiate works out and at other times everything falls into place and you get so-called ?lucky breaks?. Personally, I?m a great believer in the comment, often attributed to Gary Player, who when asked how come he was so lucky in major golf tournaments, said: "You know ? the more I practice, the luckier I get." We should have that in large letters on the wall in every room in this building.
James Brown is Managing Director of Hazard Chase Limited. t: 01223 312400; e: james.brown@hazardchase.co.uk