“The Sphinx Organization, an organization based in Detroit that offers classical music training to minority students, announced a partnership with the management agency IMG Artists on Tuesday, in which Sphinx’s orchestras would perform at festivals and other events run by IMG, and IMG’s artists would collaborate with Sphinx,” writes Allan Kozinn in Tuesday’s (2/4) New York Times. “Aaron P. Dworkin, the violinist who founded Sphinx in 1996 and has built it into a national program that runs competitions and sends touring ensembles around the country, described the agreement as a relationship unlike the usual arrangement between managers and artists. ‘In many ways,’ Mr. Dworkin said … ‘it’s a broad, long-term partnership. It’s not a matter of “Here’s an artist, let’s get them bookings,” ’ … The first fruit of the arrangement will be a residency by the Sphinx Symphony Orchestra—an ensemble of the organization’s best student players—at the Napa Valley Festival del Sole, a summer festival [in Yountville, California] that … runs from July 11 to 20.… Mr. Dworkin said that it was too early to discuss other possibilities—master classes by IMG performers for Sphinx’s students, for example, or having IMG manage Sphinx’s competition winners and alumni.”
Posted February 5, 2014
