HarrisonParrott


HarrisonParrott is an international artist and project management agency working in the field of classical music and the arts, with offices in London, Munich and Paris. It was founded in 1969 by Jasper Parrott and Terry Harrison.

Company history

Harrison and Parrott entered the artist management business in the 1960s as employees of London-based Ibbs and Tillett Ltd. Deciding that the Ibbs and Tillett style of operation did not allow them to '...forge relationships with individual artists, engaging with them and their ideas and ambitions', they set up HarrisonParrott Ltd, working initially from a domestic residence. Theirs was very much a pro-active approach to developing musical careers.
In 1985 the company was one of the European artist management concerns which founded the European Artists Direct consortium, having the aim of negotiating contracts directly with concert promoters in North America.
Terry Harrison left HarrisonParrott in 1988 to set up Terry Harrison Artist Management, representing such names as Sir András Schiff and Mayumi Fujikawa. The company ceased trading in 2015. Terry Harrison died early in 2017 at the age of 79.
Integrated within the HarrisonParrott group is the Polyarts company, based in London and Paris. Polyarts works across a range of musical genres and types of performing space.
Reflecting the global nature of its business, the company has become increasingly multilingual. According to a 2012 report in Classical Music magazine, Finnish, Greek, Italian, Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, Turkish, French, German, Hungarian, Japanese, Polish, Russian and Swedish were all spoken at HarrisonParrott's west London offices.
On 21 February 2018 the company moved its London office to The Ark, an office building in Hammersmith. It had previously been based at Albion Court, also in Hammersmith.
The HarrisonParrott 50th anniversary was scheduled to be marked by three concerts in one day at London's Southbank Centre on 6 October 2019, featuring twenty of the company's artists.

International Piano Series

HarrisonParrott has collaborated with other artist management companies in piano and orchestral series at London's Southbank Centre. One example is the International Piano Series which for more than 30 years has presented established names and also provides a London platform for young talent. Pianists appearing have included Mitsuko Uchida, Khatia Buniatishvili, Alice Sara Ott, Víkingur Ólafsson, Benjamin Grosvenor and Bertrand Chamayou, while Southbank Centre schedules for the 2019–20 IPS season feature Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Maurizio Pollini, Ingrid Filter, Stephen Hough and Daniil Trifonov.

Touring and international festivals

HarrisonParrott has been active throughout the world in all territories where there is interest in classical music, including Latin America, most of Asia and the Middle East.
In 1995, HarrisonParrott arranged the Pierre Boulez Festival in Tokyo in collaboration with the Kajimoto management company. Previously, in 1991, the company had been one of the managing agents for the month-long Japan Festival in the UK.
Among the company's varied orchestral touring activities has been the Vienna Philharmonic's first-ever visit to Colombia and the first concert by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Yerevan, Armenia, conducted by Lorin Maazel in 2012. HarrisonParrott was active in the Minnesota Orchestra's visit to Cuba in 2015 – the first visit by a US orchestra since President Barack Obama took steps to normalise relations between the two countries in December 2014.
HarrisonParrott-facilitated tours to China have featured strongly: the Boston Symphony Orchestra's return to the country in 2014 ; two tours of China by the Shakespeare's Globe Theatre company, in 2014 and 2016; and a 2015 visit by the Trondheim Soloists which celebrated the normalisation of diplomatic relations between Norway and China.
HarrisonParrott arranged performances of Akram Khan's production of Giselle with the English National Ballet in 2016, including in Hong Kong in 2018.

Creative partnerships

HarrisonParrott also acts as a creative partner – including artistic planning, project management, marketing and sponsorship – for cultural institutions. These have included the London Chamber Orchestra, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Tiroler Festspiele Erl, Marvão International Music Festival, Estonian Festival Orchestra, Gothenburg Symphony and Le Balcon. Previous partnerships also include Harpa Hall, Soundforms, Britten in Japan and Polska! Year. HarrisonParrott's relationship with Turkey goes back to the 1990s: in 2004, the company co-presented Şimdi Now – a festival of Turkish culture in Berlin, and in 2010 was consultant to La Saison de la Turquie, celebrating Turkish culture across France.

Awards

In 2015, HarrisonParrott executive chairman Jasper Parrott received the Association of British Orchestras/Rhinegold Artist Manager of the Year award '...in particular HarrisonParrott's work both with the Philharmonia Orchestra on a complex tour of South America and with the London Chamber Orchestra, whose management has been brought in-house'.

HarrisonParrott Foundation

To mark HarrisonParrott's 50th anniversary, the company created the HarrisonParrott Foundation in April 2019. The Foundation's aim was to support and champion diversity and inclusivity within the arts and ’challenge the idea that ethnicity, gender, disability and social background are impediments'.
The Foundation comprises two programmes: ‘Artists for Inclusivity’ and ‘Apprenticeship Scheme’. ‘Artists for Inclusivity’ was created to organise workshops in schools near the HarrisonParrott London office, operating in partnership with the Tri-borough Music Hub. An initial series of educational workshops and performances featured three HarrisonParrott artists engaging with students, parents and music teachers in the West London area.
The ‘Apprenticeship Scheme’ was set up to work alongside the London-based Creative Access organisation. The partnership supports diversity in the workforce, recruiting two participants each year to work across all the HarrisonParrott business areas.