S.F. Conservatory provides a 3rd classical music firm to its rising portfolio

The San Francisco Conservatory of Music has acquired Askonas Holt, the venerable London-based arts administration firm whose roster of classical musicians consists of San Francisco Symphony Music Director Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and pianist Emanuel Ax, amongst many others.

The deal, introduced Friday, Dec. 9, was made potential by nameless donations, and marks the Conservatory’s third main company acquisition in two years.

In 2020, through the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic shutdown, the varsity purchased the Berlin-based administration agency Opus 3 Artists. Earlier this yr, it acquired the classical report label Pentatone.

The bulging company portfolio working underneath the Conservatory’s umbrella will assist combine its instructional mission with entry to the world {of professional} musicians, President David H. Stull instructed The Chronicle.

“This can be a method to advance our agenda of making a playground on our campus for artists once they come right here, and for our college students whereas there are right here,” he mentioned. “It turns into an exceptional community.”

Beneath the deal, all three corporations will proceed to function autonomously as for-profit undertakings. Donagh Collins, chief govt of Askonas Holt, will take over management of Opus 3 as nicely, succeeding longtime president and CEO David V. Foster.

The unique plan, Collins mentioned from his London house, concerned merely bringing the 2 administration corporations collectively underneath a single govt.

“It’s not a merger as such,” he mentioned, “however form of sitting aspect by aspect and sharing info. Opus 3 and Askonas Holt are, in a approach, sister corporations — we’re rivals, however we share artists and a sure philosophy.”

However after lengthy discussions with Stull, Collins mentioned, he determined it made extra sense to deliver Askonas Holt into the consortium as nicely.

“I appreciated David’s enthusiasm, his power, his sense of the larger image, and I used to be attracted by assets of the Conservatory,” he mentioned, “Not simply the monetary assets, however the bodily assets, such because the studios, efficiency areas, recording expertise and lodging.”

Askonas Holt traces its historical past again to 1876 underneath numerous names and management configurations. Its present kind emerged in 1998 from the merger of two corporations, led by and named after managers Lies Askonas and Harold Holt. Collins, 48, has spent most of his profession with the agency, beginning there in 1999 and taking up the corporate’s reins in 2014.

“He’s a visionary,” Stull mentioned. “I requested everybody I knew — folks operating main orchestras, main presenters — about who we must always get to run Opus 3 — and each certainly one of them mentioned, ‘The particular person it’s best to speak to is Donagh Collins.’ ”

As with the earlier acquisitions, Stull declined to determine the supply or measurement of the funding for the deal. However he mentioned that in contrast to the acquisition of Opus 3 — which was funded by a present from a single donor — the most recent deal drew on contributions from an array of benefactors, each native and never.

“We now have a number of folks on this,” he mentioned. “It has drawn consideration all through the sphere.”

For example of advantages flowing to college students of the Conservatory, Stull mentioned that the varsity’s efficiency schedule this yr had grown partly out of the supply of artists managed by Opus 3.

“We regarded on the West Coast touring schedules for all of the Opus 3 artists, discovered the holes, and agreed to fill these holes. Then every of these performing teams — together with the Canadian Brass and the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields — got here right here and did a side-by-side efficiency with our college students,” he defined. “That’s a unprecedented alternative for younger musicians.”

With Askonas Holt’s artists now additionally within the combine, Stull mentioned the alternatives would solely multiply. He insisted he doesn’t have his eye on one other company acquisition, however claimed that the musical enterprise empire he’s created makes good sense within the up to date panorama.

“The one remaining for-profit organizations on this sector are the administration corporations. But when the mum or dad firm is a nonprofit, then as a substitute of attempting to suck income out of the system, they’re circulating it again in,” Stull mentioned.

“Music wants as a lot cash as we are able to put into it, and it wants as environment friendly a construction as we are able to discover to do it. In case you strip away all of the excesses and attempt to think about it from scratch, you find yourself with one thing like this.”

Editor’s Notice: Chronicle classical music critic Joshua Kosman teaches a seminar on music criticism on the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.