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It’s Not All Song and Dance

A Life Behind the Scenes in the Performing Arts A newly released memoir published by Limelight Editions (2005)

By Maxim Gershunoff and Leon Van Dyke - Click Here

After a lifetime of working professionally in the performing arts, and heading his own firm for over a quarter of a century, Maxim Gershunoff finds most pleasure in seeking out new young artists whose talents he perceives as worthy of advancement. To that end he has recently added a number of new artists: The truly sensational pan flute virtuoso Damian whose repertoire covers all of the classical flute repertoire, encompasses world music and, naturally, gypsy folk music is still relatively new to the roster as are pianists Christian Leotta from Italy is perhaps the youngest artist to receive his nation's highest recognition of artistic achievement, the President's Medal, Javier Clavere from Argentina and the American born Max Barros of Brazilian extraction. Look for the youthful violinists Emil Chudnovsky from Israel by way of Russia; Wolfgang David (formerly Sengstschmid) of Austria, Dmitry Pogorelov from Russia and Irina Muresanu originally from Romania. American pianist and prolific composer James Adler reports excellent sales of his composition “Memento Mori“ An AIDS Requiem - available on Albany Records, available through Amazon.com as is Maxim Gershunoff’s memoir “It’s Not All Song and Dance.”

Hailing from Argentina but now a naturalized American citizen, the aptly named pianist Clavere continues to impress audiences and critics alike and is joined, on occasion, by his wife Lindsay, an American, in two-piano recitals. Barros recorded Brazilian composer Guarneri’s piano concertos with conductor Thomas Conlin recently for the Naxos label and the disk has been accorded a great deal of critical acclaim. Violinist David is also gaining an important reputation throughout Europe and lately in the USA as well where The Washington Post said he “scaled the heights of music making in a performance spanning the 20th century.” Violinist Pogorelov after initially pursuing his musical education in Russia continued hre in the USA at the Harid Conservatory at Lynn University (Florida), respectively. These violinists hail from musical families and began appearing professionally to plaudits while still in their teenage years. Violinist Muresanu is another internationally acclaimed young artist who has been a consistent prize winner in Europe and the USA. The Boston Globe has praised her as “not just a virtuoso, but an artist.” Internationally renowned cellist Erling Blondal Bengtsson enjoys repeat engagements here in the USA, as well as pursuing multiple engagements in Europe annually.

The natural successor and protege of operatic satirist Anna Russell, Canadian soprano Mary Lou Fallis has repeated her sell-out engagements of “Primadonna” (A comedic view of a diva’s life) for several summers running in Toronto. Robert M. Gewald Management in New York City (1-800-652-8121) collaborates on the booking of this special attraction.

Conductor Jose Serebrier continues to expand upon one of the all-time largest of discographies, now totaling well over 150 in all. His recording of works by composer Ned Rorem received a total of five GRAMMY nominations in 2004. The 2002 GRAMMY for a contemporary classical composition was awarded for conductor Thomas Conlin’s recording of George Crumb’s “Star Child” with the Warsaw Philharmonic. Maestro Maurice Peress in between multiple guest conducting engagements on mainland China was able to complete his book “Dvorak to Duke Ellington” and it is available from the publisher Oxford University Press and at all discount outlets online. Conductor James Brooks-Bruzzese in addition to maintaining one of the only two symphonic organizations in South Florida, the Symphony of the Americas, wends his way across three continents annually, as well as importing a chamber orchestra to the United States each summer from Europe, then touring it nationally and throughout Latin America.

REVIEW - BOOKS

Art agent provocateur

Fans of classical music and dance will find Maxim Gershunoff’s new memoir absorbing.

By Chris Pasles
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

November 18, 2005

The unsung, frequently maligned hero behind every successful musician is an agent — or, in the loftier language of the trade, an artist's representative. Maxim Gershunoff is one such individual with a greater claim than most on Angelenos' attention.

He collaborated with Stravinsky and Franz Waxman to create the Los Angeles Music Festival at UCLA in the 1950s, helped James A. Doolittle launch successful seasons at the Greek Theatre and worked with Sol Hurok in bringing dance companies such as the Bolshoi, the Kirov and the Moiseyev to the Southland during the Cold War.

His friends and clients included Bolshoi prima ballerina Maya Plisetskaya and cellist Mstislav Rostropovich. He also launched the career of a cellist who was then 16, Yo-Yo Ma.

Now Gershunoff, 81, has written his memoirs, "It's Not All Song and Dance," with Leon Van Dyke, and the book reveals not only a lost golden age in the performing arts but also some artists with feet of clay. (He'll be at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena this evening and at Dutton's in Beverly Hills on Sunday afternoon to sign books and take questions.)

The son of Russian émigré musicians who were brought to the U.S. by Hurok in 1923, Gershunoff came to arts management indirectly. He first studied trumpet at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, where Leonard Bernstein and Samuel Barber were among his classmates. He then played under Fritz Reiner and Arturo Toscanini but grew increasingly bored by the repetitive aspects of the job. So, with encouragement from conductor Dimitri Mitropoulos, he went into arts management, ultimately serving for 12 years as vice president of Hurok Concerts Inc. He remains active in the field, representing, among others, soprano Marni Nixon and conductor José Serebrier.

Doolittle, who died in 1997 at 83, may be a hero to Angelenos. But not to Gershunoff. The impresario, he claims, finessed him and two other founding associates, Eleanor Peters and William Westcott, out of the Greek Theatre Assn. after its first successful summer season in 1951.

"We were naive," Gershunoff said in a recent phone interview from his home in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "The role Jimmy played was 'Help me, help me, because I can't do it myself.' We dove in, not thinking for ourselves."

Their efforts paid off, but later Peters, Westcott and he discovered that Doolittle had omitted their names from the association's founding charter, then manipulated them into resigning so he could take all the credit.

"We didn't speak for 40 years," Gershunoff said.

Readers who followed the drama of Soviet-era Kirov dancers Valery and Galina Panov struggling to emigrate to Israel will find similarly disappointing news. The Soviets didn't jail Valery Panov for being a freedom fighter, Gershunoff writes, but because he beat up his wife's mother. Moreover, after emigrating to Israel, Panov hated living there and worked to get out as quickly as possible.

"Panov was simply an opportunist, with no ethics whatsoever," Gershunoff said.

There are also gossipy stories about Howard Hughes' fascination with Ballets de Paris star Renée "Zizi" Jeanmaire and about Robert F. Kennedy's and Warren Beatty's interest in Plisetskaya.

Though no one is likely to want a return to the days when the Soviet agency that booked artists internationally took the bulk of performers' earnings, Gershunoff said that, for a promoter, there's a downside to the freedom that Russian artists enjoy today.

"It's less interesting to bring those huge, wonderful companies now that the stars can come in and be a guest with some other company," he said.

And the world has changed. Hurok's strategy was to invest his own money and build careers patiently if he had to.

"He figured if he lost on something, he'd make it another time. He brought the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo on the last boat that left Europe before the war," he said.

Though American audiences were unfamiliar with the company, Gershunoff said, Hurok "made it known little by little. He also made the guitar be a classical instrument by booking recitals over and over again."

Still, Hurok had far more venues available to him than promoters have these days, when the demand for classical artists has fallen off sharply at colleges and universities and the community concert associations that brought culture at low cost to so many people have almost vanished.

For those conditions, Gershunoff faults lack of music education and insufficient government sponsorship of the arts.

"Other countries invest money in their artists," he said, "and one sign of that sponsorship is the number of Finns on podiums around the world and the winners in the recent Cliburn competition, none of whom were Americans."

He also sees many of today's presenters as wrongheaded.

"They are basically unartistic marketing people. So they have to go the safe road, engaging and reengaging the same artists, blowing up their series with the image of somewhat faded names.... This is leading into a dead-end, one-way street."

If all this makes Gershunoff sound like a curmudgeon, he's not. He's cultured, direct and amusing, and not worried about remarks about, for instance, the Panovs that might seem libelous.

"That doesn't concern me at all," he said. "We have an attorney who was more worried about the Kennedy family and Warren Beatty. When we talked about being sued, he said, 'You should be so lucky.' "

If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives.

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