Last month Gramophone reported on the launch by HarrisonParrott of its new online concert platform, Virtual Circle. With one to go before the debut event, the company’s COO explains how the idea came about – and what she hopes it will achieve.

Berlin’s Digital Concert Hall and Disney+ - what do they both have in common? No it’s not that they both feature a dazzling array of out-of-this-world superheroes!

They are both the result of 10+ years of an enlightened and smart long-term strategic plan to bring their creative output direct to their audiences and in doing so to enable them to control their own creative destiny.

At HarrisonParrott we have always believed in being at the innovative forefront of what it means to be artist managers – and the launch of Virtual Circle is the first step in an ambitious long-term plan to facilitate more ownership and creative freedom for artists, creators and creative partners in the ever-changing media landscape.

By giving the artistic and creative community a place that can evolve to meet today’s changing needs and give them a direct route through which to engage with audiences around the world we can help to democratise the voices and art that is available for audiences.  

It is vitally important – as the pandemic has shown us – that creators have outlets where their work can not only be seen and heard but also where they can get fairly paid for their work. So many of us have enjoyed the access to free livestreams from many great artists, orchestras and houses around the world these last 8 months. Some have been wonderful, some less so but now is the time for us all to acknowledge two undeniable truths.

Firstly streaming is not the real thing but it’s here to stay for so many reasons – accessibility, new audience engagement, the urgent need to reinvent the travel-heavy reliance of the classical music world in a climate crisis being just three.

Secondly, if we are to sustain freelance artists, orchestras, ensembles we have to acknowledge that free cannot be the only way forward. If only those organisations who have sufficient funding from either private or public sources are able to grant access to their content (free or otherwise) then we are dooming ourselves to an increasingly small and constricted creative world and ever-decreasing circles of financially viable arts organisation and voices.

Disintermediation is a horrible word but it accurately describes the crossroads upon which classical music and wider creative arts find themselves at this moment. Do we let a small number of financially secure companies and institutions dictate what artists we see and hear and what the content they perform is or how it is communicated to audiences? Or do all try to create as many outlets for creativity that is engaging and challenging and financially viable for the creators?  We all know that some of the wonderful new platforms for musical content won’t survive but at least by trying those who believe in the power of the arts to transform lives are willing to say we will put our money where our hearts are.

Now at this time of crisis is not the time to be risk-averse – now is the time to try new things, to challenge ourselves to offer our artistic partners ways to communicate. HarrisonParrott is committed to advocating inclusion, diversity and equity within our industry – that is why we set up the HarrisonParrott Foundation to celebrate our 50^th anniversary last year – little did we know how things would change in our 51^st year but that does not mean we give up – it means we challenge ourselves and all artists and those who work in the arts to ask themselves this vital question – what would a world without sustainable creative freedom be? Do you want to be part of the solution? If the answer is yes then let’s talk.

Virtual Circle launches on December 8, 7.30pm (in all available time zones) with a concert from the Oslo Philharmonic celebrating the 155th anniversary of the birthday of Sibelius with the Orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Klaus Mäkelä.

For information and tickets, please visit: harrisonparrott.com/virtual-circle.