PANEL 2 : DO WE NEED A MIDDLE MAN
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Philip Hobbs has worked for the Scottish Hi-Fi company Linn Products throughout his career in a number of technical and managerial roles. From 1990 onwards he was Label Manager of Linn Records, an independent record label specialising in Classical and Jazz recordings. In 2007, under his leadership, Linn Records became the first Website in the world to sell high resolution, ‘Studio Master’ downloads to the general public and it was named ‘Label of the Year’ at the 2010 Gramophone awards. Philip combines his work for Linn Records with production and engineering work for other Labels, particularly EMI, Decca, Virgin Classics, Gimell and Hyperion Records and his recordings consistently receive excellent reviews and awards.
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Linn Records is one of the world's leading audiophile labels specialising in classical, jazz and Celtic music. Linn reproduces music on CD (or SACD), Vinyl and now as high quality Downloads. Linn exists to introduce the broadest range of involving musical experiences to a worldwide audience of discriminating individuals who are on a personal quest of musical ecstasy and enlightenment. The beautiful compositions and artistic performances are perfectly captured by expert engineers on recordings of unprecedented truth.
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Musicologist and essayist Oriol Pérez i Treviño is Director of Music of the Festival of Torroella, Executive Coordinator of the Centre Robert Gerhard and Artistic Director of the Academy 1750 . He has published several essays and biographies on various musical themes. As coordinator of the Centre Robert Gerhard, he has been responsible for the creation of the label C_RG Record.
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The Centre Robert Gerhard (C_RG) for the promotion and dissemination of Catalan musical heritage, located in L’Auditori in Barcelona, has been designed as a center dedicated to promoting and developing editorial projects, recordings and concert programmes related closely to the musical heritage of Catalan-speaking countries. The C_RG aims to help understand, recognize and enhance the best works and authors of important and historic Catalan musical heritage.
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John Bickley’s interest in choral music began at the age of 9 when he became a chorister at Westminster Abbey. Having read English at Queens’ College, Cambridge, a career in arts administration led from the London Opera Centre to the setting up of his own music agency, Magenta Music International, which specialised in early and contemporary music, with clients including The Hilliard Ensemble. It was here that he first encountered Harry Christophers and The Sixteen, and for the next 25 years acted firstly as artist manager and then as a trustee. In 2009 he acted as maternity cover for the Chief Executive and has stayed on as Development Director and a Director of CORO. He is an Honorary Lifetime member of the International Artist Managers’ Association (IAMA).
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After 31 years of worldwide performance and recording, The Sixteen is recognised as one of the world’s greatest ensembles. Comprising both choir and period-instrument orchestra, The Sixteen’s total commitment to the music it performs is its greatest distinction. A special reputation for performing early English polyphony, masterpieces of the Renaissance, bringing fresh insights into Baroque and early Classical music and a diversity of 20th-century music, is drawn from the passions of conductor and founder Harry Christophers. Since 2001 The Sixteen has been building its own record label, CORO, which has recently released its eightieth