“This week IMG Artists, a major representative of classical musicians in the West, announced a new partnership with the China Arts and Entertainment Group, a huge arts and entertainment company in China,” writes Michael Cooper in Saturday’s (11/23) New York Times. “Their new venture, called Sino American Global Entertainment, aims to create new paths for performances and marketing in both countries. ‘I believe China is the fastest-growing classical music market,’ Zhang Yu, the chairman of the board and president of the China Arts and Entertainment Group, said in an interview, noting that tens of millions of children in China are learning to play the piano or violin, and that new theaters and concert halls are being built throughout the nation. Jerry Inzerillo, the president and chief executive officer of IMG Artists, said that he hoped the new venture would be able to present some of the major talent emerging from China in the West, and to present more western musicians in China, where he said the growing audience for classical music was generally much younger than audiences are in America and Europe.… The venture also aims to identify new talent in China, in part by developing standardized grading at China’s burgeoning music schools.”
Posted November 25, 2013
