Artist Managers: ‘YCAT helped me see the danger of burn-out as a young player’

‘There’s no doubt that YCAT’s support really helped me establish myself and develop as a concert artist, both as a soloist and chamber musician.’ The words of cellist Jane Salmon, one of six musicians invited onto the very first roster of the Young Concert (now Classical) Artists Trust, 40 years ago. The model for YCAT was already in operation in the USA, in the shape of both the New York-based Young Concert Artists and the Concert Artists Guild outfits. Knowing of the precedents, Salmon was ‘excited that there was going to be a similar scheme here. It felt like a great honour to be selected by YCAT. Although there were other schemes that supported young musicians, it was YCAT that raised the level of professional development to make possible a significant leap forward.’

So here we are, with YCAT on the threshold of its 40th anniversary season. As the merest glimpse at its website displays, the organisation has gone from strength to strength, adding a range of dimensions to its core functions of finding appropriate work for young artists at the same time as preparing them for the stresses and strains of a performing career. The stats testify to the rude state of YCAT’s health. Last year, its artists performed close to 700 concerts in 27 countries, from Colombia to Germany, Canada to Australia.

Alasdair Tait: ‘Our job when we’re auditioning is to determine who really has something individual and personal to say.’ (Image courtesy of YCAT)

It was all the brainchild of Sir Ian Hunter, who was chairman of the Harold Holt artist management office when he founded the Trust in 1984. ‘Sir Ian reckoned that even some of the most interesting young artists didn’t have the opportunities they deserved,’ says YCAT’s current, long-serving CEO/artistic director, Alasdair Tait. ‘This was often because artist managements didn’t yet see them as commercially viable.’ With Michael Kaye as CEO, YCAT hit the ground running.

‘From the word go it was very professional set-up,’ Jane Salmon recalls. ‘There was no sense that the organisation was feeling its way. It was a huge help to receive opportunities that gave me further exposure as a performer. For example, I was able to go St Moritz, to a festival set up by Claudio Abbado, where I played chamber music with Paul Tortelier and other acclaimed players.’

Others who have benefited from the YCAT team’s work over the years include the likes of tenor Ian Bostridge, trumpet virtuoso Alison Balsom and the Belcea Quartet (of which Tait himself was the cellist). A key factor, says Tait, is helping musicians ‘develop a deeper understanding of their craft, who they are as people and as musicians. In the few years they’re with us they have space and time to find their creative voices.’

Jane Salmon: ‘It was YCAT that raised the level of professional development to make possible a significant leap forward.’ (Image courtesy of YCAT)

Viola player Timothy Ridout (YCAT artist 2016-2020) explains how this approach helped him. ‘It was a case of taking advice on narrowing down what I ought to do in terms of repertoire and what I really wanted to do… things I love and find fascinating. YCAT helped me see the danger of burn-out as a young player through playing constantly. You have to allow yourself time to prepare. You have to learn to say no, even when opportunities look attractive.’

These days, artists accepted for YCAT representation may hail from anywhere in the world. Competition, via the audition process, is correspondingly fierce. Successful auditionees will, after all, have to hold their own in a global marketplace overflowing with remarkable young talents. ‘Our job when we’re auditioning,’ says Tait, ‘is to determine who really has something individual and personal to say. For artists playing what you might call ‘niche’ instruments, the bar is even higher. They have to really convince with the force of their musical personalities – musicians like two current YCAT artists, the extraordinary Italian accordion player Samuele Telari and double bassist Will Duerden’ (pictured below).

For musicians like Samuele Telari who play ‘niche’ instruments to join YCAT, the judging panel looks for those with ‘something individual and personal to say’ © Kaupo Kikkas

When it comes securing engagements, the YCAT management team think in global terms, not least to boost musicians’ incomes. ‘People may be shocked to learn that the average yearly income for the musicians we represent wouldn’t exceed around £20,000,’ says Tait. A new collaboration with the Concert Artists Guild (CAG) in New York aims to enhance the two-way flow of talent, notwithstanding the obstacle course that is the US visa application process. Tanya Bannister, CEO of the CAG, explains that the collaboration provides ‘not only critical concert experience in both Europe and the Americas, but also specific professional support and networking opportunities targeted to each market.’

So many other YCAT developments deserve a mention at this anniversary milestone. For example, the online ‘21st Century Musician Toolkit’ (available free to all young performers) provides detail on how the classical music marketplace functions and how best to project your individual story as a musician. This facility has received an impressive number of ‘hits’. Yes, those offered YCAT representation will more than likely go on to find commercial management – Ridout is now a client of HarrisonParrott, for example – but in the modern competitive climate they still need to understand how the nuts and bolts of the music industry function. Some former YCAT artists manage extremely well on their own without commercial management, thanks to insights gained while on the roster.

Double bassist and BBC Young Musician of the Year Strings Category Finalist (2018) ​Will Duerden became a YCAT artists in 2023 ©Kaupo Kikkas

Then there’s this year’s unveiling of an annual YCAT Composer Fellowship, in memory of musician/musicologist Hans Keller. This will see young composers already making their way writing short pieces for musicians on the current YCAT roster. ‘We’ve paired up with the Royal Philharmonic Society, which has a track record of promoting young British composers,’ Tait explains. ‘Our first two picks from a shortlist drawn up by the RPS have been Electra Perivolaris and James B Wilson.’ The works composed will be performed by the YCAT artists on tour in the UK, before performances at the Wigmore Hall in concerts videoed to professional standards and thus useful for promotional purposes. An exciting collaboration, says Perivolaris, but more than that, it ‘will help to further develop my craft as a composer.’

There is no point-in-time celebration of the YCAT anniversary. ‘A major feature across the 2024/25 concert season will be a focus on building vital ongoing philanthropic funding avenues,’ says Tait. ‘Later this year, we’ll have completed our set of nine recordings featuring YCAT musicians in partnership with Delphian Records, many of which have already enjoyed glowing reviews and great traction on Spotify and Apple Classical.

‘The one big public performance dimension is a European tour, starting in February, in which ten past and present YCAT artists perform in a range of major venues, including the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin’s Boulez Saal and Wigmore Hall. If you’d asked me ten years ago if that sort of thing was possible, I’d have said, “No way”.’