EARLYMUSIC as a business

People today appreciate freedom, including the freedom to choose their aesthetic views. Nowadays there isn’t any one artistic idea that dominates the world. We deal with ”the day before yesterday“ and for many people it is more actual today than «yesterday».

We have managed to discover a gap in the Russian cultural landscape (which can also be considered a cultural market). Before Early Music appeared in Soviet and post-Soviet culture, there was a strict stereotype of what should be called classical music. Only compositions of XIX-XX centuries were included in this definition and moreover, there was a standard of how to perform a musical composition. We drew our attention to music that was composed before the French revolution: the music of Baroque, Renaissance and the Middle Ages.

We owe the success of Early Music festival and all the related projects to the fact that from the early beginning we have been cultivating a project method. Andrey Reshetin, who is the art director of Early music, bears in mind the needs of modern society and the highest creative standards when he chooses performers. The Western management approach is ensured by me. Besides, I feel that the image of a cultural project is important: searching for identity and roots, and freedom of choice – this is our mission.

A considerable part of our income is provided by fundraising activities. Although we don’t attract full stadiums of spectators, sponsors are glad to take part in our projects because it is not only the motive of direct advertisement that they are driven by. They share our opinion and consider taking part in the realization of the social mission of a project which is very important and prestigious. We can say we sell to sponsors the right to give people the right to choose their aesthetic identity.

When we started fundraising I applied to one and all without any system, but gradually a circle of sponsors appeared: AFK System, Vneshtorgbank, KPMG, Vozrozhdenie and others. For the most part they are corporations whose positioning implies reliability, validity, return to one’s roots, solidity, nobleness and authenticity. And probably the most important is continuity of vision.

There is one more segment where our potential sponsors are obviously located: the Luxury goods market. We have not entered this market yet because companies positioned there are more difficult to contact.

Having been part of the Early Music project for 8 years we can distinguish three stages of its development:

• The first three years the festival was financed only by State cultural institutes of foreign countries. Also small income came from selling tickets for festival performances.
• In the fourth year we started fundraising. Now the incomes are as follows: 70% of income comes from corporations, 20% from cultural institutes, 10% from selling tickets (we sell tickets at reasonable prices, and we will continue this way in future).

At the same time we started in two new directions: an educational program for young musicians and the Orchestra of Catherine the Great as an experimental concert base for educational programs.

At the moment in the project’s life a new diverse stage has begun. It is possible thanks to the fund of reinvestments.

On this stage there are three principally new kinds of activities: a publishing house (to publish books and music), CD recording and a concert agency. Each activity is planned to be self-supporting, including the Orchestra that will earn money from concerts only.

Publishing house. Books of our publishing house are in limited demand, only for specialists and book-hunters (for example, a treatise of 1511 by Carl F.E. Bach «Playing the clavier» was published). And the main turnover must be given by music publishing. And in this activity we are not planning to exceed the limits of our niche. However, it can become a mass product thanks to the interest of the foreign market to forgotten masterpieces of Russian music and also thanks to student auditorium and young performers.

CD recording. With the appearance of new information technologies this market gets less. And only small CD labels with a clear and narrow art conception survive. Obviously, the same is expected in Russia. With all this going on, our project is focused and also has a lot of extra advantages. Firstly, we do not pay royalties because there are no commercial rights for those compositions. Secondly, as a rule, “early music” is chamber music and we do not need to create large orchestras. And the most important, this kind of music is a nutrient medium for the whole direction of modern music. This kind of music is understandable by jazz and rock audience.

A booklet that shows an album from an unexpected side will be enclosed in every CD. For example, a booklet to the disc “Bach and Biber, music for violin and clavier” is devoted to the Soviet underground of 1980s. They are connected through the performer Andrey Reshetin, well-known for his work in band Aquarium; graphic by Axcel, words by Andrey Volokhonsky. Another example: while working in the archive, we found a German composer who can be considered the father of Russian string quartets, although it was thought that Russian string music began from Glinka. The booklet to this disc will be devoted to life of Russian country estate of XVIII century.

Concert agency starts working in the interests of performers and groups arriving to the festival.

The name “Early Music” applies to all projects and the festival is becoming a leader and central uniting “brand”.

EARLYMUSIC International Festival in St Petersburg was held for the first time in 1998. Its founders were Mark de Moni, Elizabeth White, Director of the British Counsil, and Andrey Reshetin, former participant of the famous Russian rock-band “Akvarium“ and one of the founders of the baroque ensemble Musica Petropolitana. The main aim of the festival is to present European musical legacy performed by world-known musicians, and renascence of Russian XVIII century music.

In 2001 master classes and lectures began. Catherine the Great Orchestra was founded. The Russian Foundation of Antique Music has been organized. in 2004 the EARLYMUSIC publishing house was started, which publishes unique treatises on music. In 2005 the CD label EarlyMusic Records was created.