20 Years karsten witt musik management
Variations on a Theme: 18 Conversations
karsten witt musik management kwmm has been around for 20 years now. For this reason, we asked (almost) all the employees of this unique Berlin-based company to talk to us about the diverse activities and backgrounds of this management agency, which focuses primarily on classical including contemporary music. What does it mean to organize performances and tours for the 80 or so artists, performers and composers that kwmm has under contract, and to arrange commissions? Why has kwmm also decided to organize its own concert series CLSX.de? And why is Karsten Witt also involved in the management of the major international industry event Classical:NEXT? In addition, the “kwmm Academy” was founded, which primarily trains young artists in how best to organize their own careers. With such a wealth of activities, the question arises as to how karsten witt musik management is structured internally. How do the flat hierarchies work, and how does the relatively small team, which operates internationally - i.e. worldwide - manage to be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week? “If everything works out, nobody talks about us, but about the artist's great performance. And that's how it should be,” is said at one point, but: ”You definitely need a high level of frustration tolerance!” - So how do employees manage to motivate each other when they have an overloaded daily workload? What exactly is the “trade secret” of karsten witt musik management?
In this film, we used the rondo-like structure of the “daisy chain”, as in our Dulab films - only not with music, but with the spoken word: employee A talks to employee B, B to C and C to D and so on - whereby the transitions are fluid and the topics of conversation meander almost imperceptibly, a metamorphosis, as if all members of the team were speaking with just one voice, traversing the cosmos of this institution of the German and international music business. Many facets of a single great river.
Cast & Crew
- Director
- Uli Aumüller
- Producer
- Karsten Witt
- Director of photography
- Sebastian Rausch