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Veterans including Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio), Christian Doll (C² Concerts) and Christian Gerlach (Neuland Concerts) have been appointed to steer the association
By IQ on 09 Nov 2022
Germany’s Federal Association of the Concert and Event Industry (BDKV) has elected a new board, spearheaded by new president Sonia Simmenauer.
Promoter, publicist and impresaria Simmenauer will work alongside managing director Johannes Everke, who has been in office since 1 November and will take over the management from 1 January, 2023.
The newly designed and downsized board of directors also includes deputy president Christian Doll (C² Concerts), Daniel Domdey (d2mberlin, Die Wühlmäuse), Christian Gerlach (Neuland Concerts), Verena Krämer (wahn. witty bramer.krämer GbR, kulturkraemer), Michaela Russ (SKS Erwin Russ) and Stephan Thanscheidt (FKP Scorpio Konzertproduktionen).
BDKV’s 400+ members have thanked outgoing president Prof. Jens Michow for the work he has done for the events industry in recent years and for the successes he has achieved.
Since 1985, Michow has been the executive president of the IDK and later the BDV (Federal Association of the Event Industry). In 2018 he also took over the management of the BDKV, which merged with Pascal Funke’s VDKD (Association of Concert Management).
“[Jens Michow’s] legacy encourages and inspires me”
Michow says: “I sincerely wish the new board team and managing director all the best for their future work. They are taking office in a difficult time of crisis and will therefore have to master very special challenges. To do this, they must quickly develop good contacts with political Berlin, the parties and members of the Bundestag as well as the technical level of the ministries, but also with the state governments and the numerous bodies in which the BDKV is represented.”
Michow’s successor, Simmenauer, was already a member of the board of the VDKD and, since the merger, also of the BDKV. The concert agent founded her company Impresariat Simmenauer in Hamburg in 1989.
The agency has been based in Berlin since 2009 and represents a number of the world’s most important chamber music ensembles and soloists. After numerous teaching activities, she became an honorary professor at the Hamburg University of Music in the field of music education in 2010.
Simmenauer adds: “I am very grateful to the members for their trust and I am now full of energy to set new trends together with the board team and to build on the success of the outgoing executive president Prof. Jens Michow. His legacy encourages and inspires me.”
BDKV now represents the interests of more than 420 companies in the German event industry and thus represents a market turnover of around €5 billion annually.
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