The changing face of live classical music

Special live orchestral productions by artists such as Cypress Hill, Beck and Stewart Copeland are helping bring classical music to new audiences, as efforts to “future-proof” the genre intensify.

That’s the verdict of international music and arts management company HarrisonParrott, which has established a roster of diverse, multi-faceted artists and projects through its Polyarts agency.

“We’re the bridge to the classical world, which is sometimes very different to working on commercial projects,” explains HarrisonParrott Group (HPG) CEO Moema Parrott. “We usually deal with all of the classical details, so handling the creation of the scores, the conductors and working with the orchestras and the venues.”

Memorably, Polyarts worked alongside Primary Wave and X-ray Touring as consultants on Cypress Hill’s concert at the Royal Albert Hall with the London Symphony Orchestra last summer. The booking was inspired by a scene from The Simpsons, in which the hip-hop group accidentally booked a gig with the LSO while intoxicated.

“It was an absolutely dream project,” Parrott tells IQ. “I had seen The Simpsons episode it was all linked to, and so we recreated that with the LSO. It came about because with Polyarts, we work with big artists who have management and agents already – usually either as classical consultants, classical managers or as an agent – it varies depending on the structure. And in this case, we just reached out.

“We knew about the project through the LSO. It hadn’t worked about four or five years ago, and so we picked it up, reached out their management, and then created it from scratch with the LSO. We filmed it with Mercury Studios, so it’s now in cinemas for a limited run and there’s a classical album coming out in June, and they’ll probably be coming back to do it again with some completely new arrangements.

“That was really a dream project, because the coverage we got was absolutely phenomenal.”

“We want to continue to be at the forefront of leading the change in classical and future-proofing the industry”

In tandem with Silva Artist Management and SJM, the company is also involved with Beck’s upcoming two exclusive orchestral performances at the Hall next month with the BBC Concert Orchestra, plus Stewart Copeland’s career-spanning Police Deranged for Orchestra tour.

“We’ve been working with Stewart Copeland since 2016 or ’17,” says Parrott. “We actually co-manage him now, because his real focus is more and more classical. He’s also a film composer, so he works with Oliver Stone and Francis Ford Coppola, and we’ve developed a really amazing relationship over the years. He is one of the most inspiring people I work with.”

What’s more, Parrott believes such productions stand alone, without cannibalising an artist’s traditional live business.

“It’s a whole different world,” she argues. “It’s an additional, evergreen, prestigious, beautiful rendering of the music, that just makes it bigger and more high impact. And it can exist alongside their main career trajectory and be complementary.”

Based in London, Munich and Paris, HarrisonParrott was founded by Moema’s father, Jasper Parrott, in 1969, with Moema taking the helm in 2023. The firm’s history of fusing rock and pop artists with classical dates back to the 1970s, with examples such as Led Zeppelin at the Reykjavik Festival in 1970 and Metallica with the Berliner Symphoniker at the Berlin Wall in 1999.

“We are very ambitious,” she says. “We’ve always been change-makers, and we want to continue to be at the forefront of leading the change in classical and future-proofing the industry for the benefit of all. We have to build new audiences and work in a different way with all partners, and change the mindset, and access is vital.

“The core repertoire is key, but we have to find a way to break out of the niche and that is complicated, because traditionally, popular is seen as ‘bad’, and we need to change that and push the barriers and broaden the scope of what’s possible.”

Parrott continues: “Investing in new music is one of the key points. We have to focus on contemporary classical music so we’re not just repeating the full repertoire of 200 years ago all the time. We have to invest in composers and new music.”

“We want to change the perception that classical artists are a niche, different animal”

Rafi Gokay Wol, HPG’s senior director, arts partnerships & tours, dance & international, detects a post-pandemic sea change in the sector.

“People say classical music is a dying art form, which is absolutely not right. There is so much activity and we work in every corner of the world,” he notes. “We’re becoming more creative collaborators with promoters and with artists to try to develop and produce new project for the marketplace, and that comes through very in-depth conversations with them. We are also trying to give our ideas to them, but also take ideas from the industry. And after Covid, there seems to be a greater openness and appetite to do different things.

“We are working on trying to lead this diversification in this industry. In the past, it was very much a transactional business model when it comes to management, and we’re trying to turn that on its head.”

HPG has also driven touring projects such as Icelandic pianist Vikingkur Ólafsson’s tour, which spanned six continents, and Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä’s 88-date city run and work as chief conductor of four of the world’s biggest orchestras. Ólafsson’s dates were linked to an album, replicating the commercial model. He has also collaborated with the singer and fellow Icelander Laufey.

“Dalia Stasevska, another conductor we work with, created her own playlist [2024’s Dalia’s Mixtape via Platoon] and released single after single, which is very uncommon for the classical world,” adds Gokay Wol. “So they have embraced the pop and rock model as well, which is an interesting development.”

“We want to change the perception that classical artists are a niche, different animal,” stresses Parrott. “Classical artists should not be seen differently to commercial artists.”

In summary, Parrott says classical music sits at a crossroads, with “significant changes” required in the years to come.

“I think it’s a real turning point,” she concludes. “The subsidised model for many classical venues and orchestras is becoming redundant, so commercial business models need to be adopted.

“The crucial factor for everyone is, how do we bring in new audiences and build new audiences to reach younger and broader and more diverse audiences for the future? Because that’s a real issue. That also means lobbying with governments in terms of music education, because  that has a butterfly effect on the whole industry, from musicians to audiences who appreciate classical music. But it’s an opportunity in crisis.

“In my view, significant changes need to be made in the next five to seven years, in every single area of the classical music business, if we want to future-proof the industry.”

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