“Charles Hamlen, who co-founded one of classical music’s leading management agencies, helped build the careers of young stars, including the violinist Joshua Bell, and then left the business to raise money to help people with AIDS, died on Wednesday at his home in Manhattan” of leukemia, writes Michael Cooper in Wednesday’s (8/1) New York Times. “He was 75…. He was a high school French teacher and playing piano on the side when he moved to New York in 1977 … founded a small firm with Edna Landau and began building a roster of musicians…. He developed a reputation as a talent spotter who could forge good, open relationships with both artists and presenters…. In 1984 … the firm was acquired by the International Management Group [and] renamed IMG Artists…. [After] the death of his partner from AIDS in 1988 [he] founded Classical Action: Performing Arts Against AIDS, [which] raised millions for AIDS groups…. Charles Ewing Hamlen was born … in Schenectady, N.Y. … He … graduated from Harvard College … in 1965.” In 2009, Hamlen returned to IMG Artists for several years. “When he left, he became artistic adviser to the Orchestra of St. Luke’s in New York.”
Posted August 2, 2018
