Based in
New York City, it was formed on December 12, 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. By 1941, under pressure from government regulators, both CBS and NBC ended their longtime relationships with their respective talent management companies. The independent Columbia Concerts renamed itself as Columbia Artists Management Inc. in 1948. In March 2021, performing arts management company IMG Artists acquired the name and brand of Columbia Artists. CAMI was based at
165 West 57th Street in New York City from 1959 to 2005, when it moved to
1790 Broadway. 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,
Mohammed Fairouz,
Jussi Björling,
John McCormack,
Richard Tucker,
Paul Robeson, and
George London; pianists
Vladimir Horowitz,
Ronald Turini,
Aleksey Sultanov,
Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli, and
Van Cliburn; violinists
Jascha Heifetz,
Yehudi Menuhin, Eugene Sarbu 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. The agency's contemporary roster included conductors
Seiji Ozawa,
Valery Gergiev and
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla; singers
Isabel Leonard,
Russell Thomas and
Brenda Rae; and pianist
Maurizio Pollini. British music commentator
Norman Lebrecht criticized CAMI and
Ronald A. Wilford for what Lebrecht deemed to be their overly pervasive influence on conductor salaries, and the limited time music directors spent with orchestras. ==References==