Founded 1930 | ||
Profiles |
Columbia Artists Management, Inc. (CAMI) is an international talent management agency.
History
Based in New York City, it was formed in 1930 as Columbia Concerts Corporation by Arthur Judson and William S. Paley, the then head of the Columbia Broadcasting System, who helped merge seven independent concert bureaus in the United States.
During its existence, CAMI has represented a very large number of active classical artists worldwide, including singers Leontyne Price, Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, Renata Tebaldi, Mario Lanza, Jussi Björling, John McCormack, Richard Tucker, Paul Robeson, and George London; pianists Vladimir Horowitz, Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and Van Cliburn; violinists Jascha Heifetz, Yehudi Menuhin, and Tossy Spivakovsky; and conductors Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, and Otto Klemperer.
Composers Sergei Prokofiev, Igor Stravinsky, and Aaron Copland were managed by CAMI when they appeared as performers.
British music commentator Norman Lebrecht has criticized CAMI and Wilford for what Lebrecht deems to be overly pervasive influence of them on conductor salaries and limited time spent by music directors with orchestras.