Benedikt Matthias Reimann runs the artist and concert agency “BMR Artist & Project Management,” which manages and represents artists in the field of classical music. In this interview, he tells us how important career guidance is for musicians, why classical music is so strongly connected with emotions, and how especially young people can come into contact with classical music. And how the menu of a restaurant can sometimes save the day.
Interview with Benedikt Matthias Reimann, Founder of Artist and Concert Agency “BMR Artist & Project Management”
BI: Hello and thank you for taking the time for this interview. You are the founder of the artist and concert agency “BMR Artist & Project Management.” Please tell us first about your background.
BMR: Thank you very much for the invitation and your interest. The foundation for my path into the world of classical music was laid by my piano teacher, who was also a concert pianist at my school, a renowned music-focused high school. There, I came into close contact with classical music. For example, I sang in a choir led by a Benedictine monk and gained my first experience as an accompanist for a classmate, whose father was a prominent concert bass.
During my studies in business administration, I began to take an interest in cultural management, particularly in the fields of events and agencies, and I focused on accounting, tax law, and business law. My thesis, which dealt with legal and accounting issues in the music industry, was published as a book.
As a festival staff member, I gained my first management experience. This was followed by concerts as an independent promoter and co-producer. After a short period at a major auditing company, I held various management positions in sales, particularly in the IT industry, serving clients from small businesses to multinational corporations. In 2018, I became managing partner and director of a classical music festival. From 2017 to 2019, I organized my own concert series as a local promoter. And since 2018, the agency BMR Artist & Project Management has existed.
BI: What does a creative agency like yours do?
Our focus is on artist management, artist representation, and concert booking. I manage artist careers in the classical music market, advise musicians, and represent artists and guest concerts worldwide to promoters. On request, I also provide project-specific consulting for promoters and institutions.
BI: Please briefly introduce the most important artists you work with.
That is difficult because, as an agent, it is in the nature of the job that all of the artists I represent are important to me. Of course, the artists with whom I currently maintain a close working relationship and for whom I actively pursue engagements have a special significance – these include conductor and concert organist Hansjörg Albrecht, pianist Konstantin Lukinov, baritone Daniel Ochoa, soprano Cathrin Lange, alto Henriette Gödde, mezzo-soprano Roxana Constantinescu, tenors Mario Lerchenberger and Daniel Johannsen, baritone Neven Crnić, and the Talistrio. Beyond that, there are always collaborations with artists who are “only” occasionally booked, for example, as substitutes for ill or unavailable musicians.
BI: What makes it challenging to work in the international concert management world today?
The challenges certainly include the highly competitive market – both in terms of the oversupply of artists facing limited demand, as well as competition among promoters, record labels, and agencies. Limited and unevenly distributed budgets in high culture are another market challenge.
BI: How do you come into contact with new clients? Is it more through personal networks and recommendations or also through targeted acquisition?
It is a mixture of everything – personal networks are essential in this people business. The network develops both through targeted acquisition and through the reputation and achievements of the artists themselves, but also through accompanying marketing measures such as social media.
BI: Who are your clients? Are they mostly public clients, cultural institutions such as festivals, orchestras, theaters, or also companies wanting to host concerts as events?
Correct, the clients are both private and public promoters and cultural institutions such as festivals, orchestras, theaters, and choirs. Requests for corporate events are rare and do not play a significant role.
BI: What differences do you experience between the wishes of promoters and the expectations of the artists?
Ideally, and this is how I see the job of an agent, I bring together the wishes of both parties. When a win-win situation is created, the placement works. It helps to know both sides well. Since before working solely as an agent, I was both a promoter and also performed on stage as an accompanist and choir singer, I understand the concerns of both sides. This is highly valued by both promoters and artists.
BI: What is important for you in ensuring long-term cooperation?
Mutual trust and loyalty. It also helps when artists keep their feet on the ground. The idea is to see the artist’s career as a joint project that you work on together and for which you share responsibility.
BI: Which concert or artist project has stayed particularly in your memory and why?
Oh, there are many. From audience members fainting and being cared for during the concert, to stressful cash payouts to orchestra musicians backstage, to registering organ concerts where over 600 combinations need to be followed, played, and triggered at the right moment. The activities of an agent and former promoter can be very diverse.
The musical highlights of outstanding works, combined with the individual and spiritually profound interpretations of the musicians, sometimes create the magical moments for which you do this job. These are concerts and moments that remain long in memory, leave emotional traces, and enrich life immensely.
BI: Are there approaches to further developing traditional concert formats? Which mindset has helped you in this regard?
This has always been a topic in the industry. How can concert formats evolve? How can more people, especially the young, be inspired by classical music? There are approaches to hosting concerts in innovative venues, also in more relaxed atmospheres and dress.
Artificial intelligence is a development that should be used meaningfully, for example by completing musical fragments or reworking compositions.
The most important consideration, however, is and remains bringing more people into contact with classical music, because they love it! Just as everyone loves the Champions League anthem, originally composed as “Zadok the Priest” by George Frideric Handel, though most are unaware of this. Classical film music also moves many people. The classical live concert has exactly the same emotional effect as a moving, classically scored moment in a film and can create the same sense of grandeur in the audience that many feel when players enter the field at a Champions League match. For it is the music that expresses and amplifies the emotions. When young people in particular sing classical music themselves or learn an instrument, they have the chance to connect with the music and experience these intense emotions.
BI: Do you have an anecdote or small mishap behind the scenes that made you smile?
Yes, there are many, because a lot happens behind the scenes. You have to be able to deal with emotional extremes backstage, in preparation, and in the aftermath of concerts, otherwise you are out of place in this industry. There is often little to smile about directly in connection with a concert performance. However, one does laugh and smile about situations and characters in the industry, especially when one is also friends with the artists one represents. But to give a short anecdote that made me smile: For a concert at the Berlin Philharmonie, the soloist I had arranged forgot his black music folder for his sheet music. This was quite a problem, but the artist found a creative solution: On the day of the concert, he happened to come across the completely black menu of a Berlin restaurant, which he quickly borrowed. Instead of his music folder, he entered the stage of the Berlin Philharmonie holding a menu. That truly made me smile.
BI: From today’s perspective, is there something you wish you had known earlier?
The success of a promoter and agent lies not only in the things and projects he does – it also lies especially in the things he refrains from doing.
This interview was conducted in June 2025.
Our Conclusion from the Interview with concert agent Benedikt Matthias Reimann
The conversation with Benedikt Matthias Reimann makes clear how much passion, organizational skill, and attention to detail are required behind the scenes to ultimately create those magical moments that make a concert unforgettable and move the audience emotionally. Great artistic moments do not begin on stage, but are the result of close collaboration characterized by trust and a deep dedication to music.