Speaking of the Arts

Today we are featuring a new organization called NITO (https://nitolive.org/) which stands for the National Independent Talent Organization. In their own words “NITO is a non-profit group initially formed by like-minded independent talent agencies for the purpose of promoting the welfare and prosperity of its members and their represented artists, as well as for the indirect benefit of those assoc...

Today we are featuring a new company on Speaking of the Arts called Virtual Concert Hall. They have created a unique product that aims to solve a major problem for both artists and venues right now. As we have all experienced these past several weeks with live streaming, the quality from these sessions can be less than great and the experience for both the artist and fans is also less than ideal....

Today’s episode is about a new coalition recently formed to help support agencies during the pandemic. The coalition is called PAMAC, which stands for the Performing Arts Managers and Agents Coalition. This is a group of more than 150 artist managers, booking agents and independent producers in the performing arts industry, with support from 16 arts service organizations, including Americans for t...

Today we pick up on our Artists in Quarantine mini series and feature the pianist, composer, and activist Fred Hersch (https://fredhersch.com). Our conversation covered a lot of great things that Fred is up to right now including his daily live streamed concerts (https://www.facebook.com/fredherschmusic/), his new album with Esperanza Spaulding (https://esperanzaspaldingfredhersch.bandcamp.com/?fb...

Hello everyone and welcome back to Speaking of the Arts. My guest today is Kristy Edmunds. Kristy currently serves as the Executive and Artistic Director for UCLA’s Center for the Art of Performance https://cap.ucla.edu/ . Prior to this, Edmunds was the Founding Executive and Artistic Director of the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA)https://www.pica.org/ and the TBA Festival (Time Bas...

Welcome to Speaking of the Arts. Today’s guest is Jay Sweet. Jay is the Executive Producer of The Newport Folk Festival ( https://www.newportfolk.org ), The Newport Jazz Festival ( https://www.newportjazz.org/ ) and Newport Festivals Foundation ( https://www.newportfestivals.org/ ), a 501(c)(3) which expands the impact of its Festivals through music education initiatives throughout the United Stat...

Welcome to a special episode of Speaking of the Arts. Today’s episode will feature the audio from a live panel discussion we recently hosted via Zoom. The topic was on the Future of Performing Arts and our guest speakers explored different scenarios for how to present music going forward. Guest speakers include: Kendra Whitlock Ingram, President and CEO of the Marcus Performing Arts Center, Milwau...

Today we are featuring the award winning pianist and composer, Emmet Cohen. The National YoungArts Foundation recently featured Emmet for his weekly live stream concert series called Live from Emmets place. Emmet does this with his trio every Monday night at 7:30PM Eastern and you can tune in and watch via Emmet’s facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/heyemmet/). In this episode, I talk to Emmet...

Speaking of the Arts welcomes NEA Jazz Master Delfeayo Marsalis and Epstein & Company's own Marie Le Claire. In this episode, we talk to Delfeayo to hear more about his new album JAZZ PARTY and what he has been up to during quarantine. Listen as Delfeayo speaks in depth about the conception for his Uptown Jazz Orchestra and the unique approach they take to each show. For the better part of a decad...

Today is the first episode of a new mini series I will be doing where we will be featuring some of our artists during this time of quarantine. My first guest is Kat Edmonson and we actually had Kat on the show almost exactly 2 years ago so if you like what you hear today then please check out that interview which is episode 34 (http://www.speakingofthearts.com/episode34/). Today, I speak with Kat...

Hello everyone and welcome to Speaking of the Arts. I hope you are staying safe and healthy right now as we enter the second half of April 2020. This is a tough time to be in the arts and there is a lot of uncertainty as to when live music will be allowed to function again. I hope to offer something of value for all of the musicians and presenters listening who are wondering what opportunities may...

Speaking of the Arts welcomes Todd Walker. Todd recently launched a new agency called Outer/Most. They represent a ton of great artists including Flor de Toloache, Anoushka Shankar, Madison McFerrin, and many more. In this episode we talk about Todd's background as an agent, his goals for his new agency, his thoughts on signing and developing new artists, working with managers, and a lot more. Be...

Speaking of the Arts welcomes Joe O'Neil! Joe currently works for the music software company Prism, a unique platform for promoters and talent buyers. In their own words, "Prism was founded by venue managers, promoters and artist reps committed to simplifying the complex process of booking shows, managing rooms, and routing tours through music promoter software." In this episode we talk about Joe'...

Fred Taylor was one of the most respected and genuine people I've ever worked with in the music industry. He passed away at the age of 90 on Saturday after dedicating his life to promoting the artists he worked with. Here we pay tribute to Fred and we will miss him.

Welcome to Episode 46 of Speaking of the Arts! Today we feature Jeff Kane from Live Nation/Ticketmaster. In this episode we talk about all things related to tickets including how to determine ticket pricing, how data is influencing an artist's ability to structure their ticket pricing, what some of the differences are between older generations of ticket buyers and younger millennial buyers, and ho...

Brian T. O'Neill leads the acclaimed dual-ensemble, Mr. Ho's Orchestrotica and has performed at prestigious venues in the US including Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, and the Montreal Jazz Festival. In addition to being a busy independent musician, Brian is also a product designer and founder of the consultancy, Designing for Analytics, which helps enterprise companies turn data into indispensa...

Speaking of the Arts goes under the hood and discusses Epstein & Company's Unique Process for working with artists!

Brian Camelio founded ArtistShare in 2001. The platform is now recognized as the Internets first fan-funding platform. ArtistShare enables fans to not only fund their favorite artist’s projects, but to truly become participants in the creative process. Brian was a visionary in that he saw the internet’s potential as a way to connect fans and artists directly. Since 2003, ArtistShare projects have...

Speaking of the Arts features the 14X Grammy Nominated pianist, composer, and activist Fred Hersch! In this episode we discuss many aspects of Fred's incredible career including lessons learned from legendary artists such as Stan Getz and Joe Henderson, how Fred approaches lessons with private students, what makes his current trio so special, his approach to solo piano performances, how Fred deter...

Hi everyone and welcome to speaking of the arts. Today’s episode will be different from our usual format of interviewing a key promoter, presenter, agent, artist or manager. I’m going to be talking about something we’ve created internally here called Artist Scorecards. If you go to our website at http://www.epsteinco.com, you will see a tab at the top appropriately labeled Artist Scorecards, where...

Welcome to the 40th Episode of Speaking of the Arts! Today we are featuring Tim Wilson. Tim is the Executive Director of the Western Arts Alliance, or WAA as it is commonly known. Tim has led the arts service organization and performing arts market based in Portland, OR for more than 20 years. I had the opportunity to meet Tim at this years WAA conference and he kindly agreed to be on the show. We...

Today’s episode is actually a live recording from the recent Arts Midwest conference in Indianapolis. I led a session on podcasting and the arts and I was joined by two experienced podcasters including Colleen Cook and Trevor St. Aubin. We cover all sorts of great topics such as why should an arts organization do a podcast in the first place, what are the technical aspects involved with producing...

I could not be more excited to share this episode with you. I had the opportunity to speak with Jamie Marguiles today who is the label director at GroundUP Music. GroundUP is known for releasing incredible music from groups like Snarky Puppy, Bokante, Banda Magda, and so many more. I wanted to hear from Jamie all about how she and her team approach social media. If you haven’t checked out GroundUP...

"What are presenters saying?" This is the question displayed on the cover of our new artist data books for the 2019-2020 season. We are taking a look under the hood here at our agency and will be talking about new artists projects for the 2019-2020 fine arts booking season. You will learn about which artists are doing what, when they are available, and much more. Here to talk with me is Matt Morre...

Is the current performing arts system broken? How is the digital revolution affecting the way we approach our industry? What are traditional performing arts centers doing to try and reach younger audiences? Why do performing arts centers continue to spend significant resources on printed brochures? Are the annual booking conferences even necessary? These questions, and more, on today’s episode of...