Jackie Thomas-Piccardi
Roster: Simon Tedeschi (Piano), Andrea Lam (Piano), Tamara-Anna Cislowska (Piano), Elena Kats-Chernin AO (Composer, Piano), Paavali Jumppanen (Piano), David Fung (Piano), Sally Walker (Flute), Alexandre Da Costa (Violin, Conductor), Elena Kats-Chernin & Tamara-Anna Cislowska (Piano duo), Tarita Botsman (Soprano / Creative Director), Hetty Kate (Jazz Vocalist)
State/Territory: NSW
Key Achievements
Six artists’ album releases since 2021 reached no.1 on the ARIA Classical charts, with 4 nominated for ARIA 'Best classical album'. In 2024, three of my twelve artists were nominated for Limelight 'Artist of the Year'. Helping generate almost $500k in private support, grants and sponsorship for my artists over the last decade, and helping get jazz back on stage on Sydney’s north shore with Jazz At The Lounge, at The Concourse.
AAM’s Impact on My Journey
Becoming a member of the AAM in 2023 has been wonderful; seeing the well-reasoned and professional advocacy for artist managers was like a beacon of light in that post-pandemic time, where things were becoming our new ‘normal’, feeling more frantic and slightly chaotic as we adjusted to new (shorter) programming, planning and audience ticket-buying timelines. Being selected to attend the AAM’s 2024 Managers’ Retreat was a highlight: to be away from the office for a few days with these amazing, vastly experienced artist managers whose clients were frequently in the news/the press/on air, hearing everyone’s backgrounds and experiences and sharing how we felt in certain professional situations, was a gift. Running my own agency as a mostly one-woman show (with family commitments), there is little time to meet up with other artist managers and really talk about the business of being a manager; just those few days, facilitated by AAM, helped me clarify certain decisions around my roster and ideas for some medium-term goals. Contemporary music and classical music numbers/figures and the overall environments in which we operate are a bit different – with pros and cons on both sides – but the Retreat sparked ideas, and provided a feeling of camaraderie and support, as well as that precious headspace to think about things I’d like to do or do better, in my work with my artists.
Approach to Management
I try to work and live my life by ‘the golden rule’, being, to treat other people as you would like to be treated. I like to think that it shapes my style in showing a level of loyalty, honesty, and respect to colleagues both within and peripheral to music (eg. in media, community presenters and schools, volunteer-run and NFP organisations etc), not harassing people or creating unnecessary drama when mishaps or unexpected obstacles crop up. I’ve realised that while assertive when needed, I tend to not be very aggressive or pushy; I aim for a fair outcome and if things don’t go exactly how my artist and I wish or expect, then I try to find a way to work with or around the obstacle to achieve our aims.
Dream Industry Initiative
A colleague and I once half-joked that it would be wonderful to have a workshop for young, professional music artists on how to work with your future manager… how to make your manager’s life easier (!) so that they can work more effectively for and with you. (Though I’m sure artists would similarly love a workshop for managers on what they wish we would do or be like, too..!) Humour aside, having worked in artist management since 2005, most managers I’ve met and collaborated with work incredibly hard, with long and unpredictable hours, and that work is often not seen fully by the public, the presenters or sometimes even the artist. So many managers continuously go the extra mile for their artists, promoting, defending and advancing their interests as far as possible, regardless of whether a project ends up being judged a public success or not; as one often reads, manager burnout and musings on changing career are a regular occurrence, with reason.
Proud Moments in Management
When I’m seated in the crowd at my artists’ performances, seeing and hearing the profound effect they and their music have on the audience never fails to make me feel immensely proud to be working with them. Apart from all being at the top of their game, reliable and utterly professional, the artists I manage really connect to people through their performances of whatever music they are playing, whether it be 400 years old or written for them to premiere today. Also, after so much painstaking preparation by the artist, that ability and willingness to then share their innermost selves and vulnerability with a concert hall of a hundred, a thousand or eight thousand people in a park is something that leaves me in awe; that the audience can be moved to tears, or bliss, or barely breathe for the beauty of a moment or a whole movement; and that sometimes an artist’s performance will ‘speak’ to someone’s soul so profoundly that it remains with them for the rest of their life.
I’m proud to say that the artists I manage are also highly intelligent, socially engaged people with their hearts in the right place; they care about things going on in the world and family as well as what’s coming up next in their diary. Add to this that they are often multi-talented too: acclaimed writers, composers, librettists, radio and television presenters and pedagogues… it’s not really fair for the rest of us!