Lee Lamont
Tough classical music agent who championed leading violinists
LEE LAMONT, who has died aged 86, was president of ICM Artists, one of the world’s most powerful classical music agencies, overseeing the careers of stars such as Yo-yo Ma, Isaac Stern and James Galway; such was her attention to detail that she was said to have helped one pianist to plan the best time to impregnate his wife so that the birth would not interfere with his overseas concert tour.
Short, sharp and puffing away on More cigarettes, Lee Lamont would alternately woo and browbeat orchestra managers, festival organisers and concert promoters, while massaging the sizeable egos of up to 200 musicians. String players were her forte, and at one point she seemed to manage the career of almost every major violinist including Itzakh Perlman, Midori and Gil Shaham.
The New York Times described how backstage after a concert she would greet her clients with enthusiasm. “Lee is up front in her fur coat, laughing boisterously with the artists,” observed one rival.
To her detractors Lee Lamont was responsible for pushing talented children, especially those of Asian origin, on to the stage too soon. “Many of them will turn into human wrecks, robbed of a childhood, an education and the capacity to form meaningful adult relationships,” declared Norman Lebrecht in The Daily Telegraph in 1997.
She, however, pointed to the hard work and sacrifice that the likes of Sarah Chang and Anne Akiko Meyers and their families were prepared to make. “Every oriental artist we represent has a mother or father or both who insist on being involved while the artist is still young,” she said.
Lee Lamont was always ambitious, both for herself and the artists she represented. She made annual visits to the Soviet Union and the Far East, scouting for new talent, and set up a London office to encroach on the territory of her European rivals. Her aim, she said, was “to bring the fields of music and dance closer to the general public”.
She was born Lenore Lamont Grunner in Queens, New York, on January 13 1932. After high school she worked as a secretary, taking night classes at the City University of New York. Her entry into music management came by working with Sheldon Gold, a young sales representative. They found their way to Sol Hurok, the best-known impresario of the 1950s, where she learnt to put together tours for musicians.
In 1967, feeling undervalued and underpaid, she joined the Opera Company of Boston. Two years later she became Isaac Stern’s secretary. After Hurok’s death in 1974 she was reunited with Gold when they founded International Creative Management Artists, part of the Hollywood-based Marvin Josephson talent group. Gold died in 1985 and Lamont emerged as president of the company where, according to the conductor Leonard Slatkin, she was “tough, but exceptional”. While one employee who had handed in his notice returned from lunch to find his office being cleaned out, a visitor from overseas might find herself being entertained at the Russian Tea Room next to Carnegie Hall.
Some of Lee Lamont’s rivals found her to be blunt to the point of rudeness. One recalled being invited to a post-concert reception for a string quartet who had recently left his management for her. “Lee opened the door, and as each member of the quartet walked in, she greeted them warmly,” he recalled. “When it was my turn, she let the door close in my face.”
She retired in 2002, settling in Colorado Springs.
Lee Lamont married August (“Augie”) Tagliamonte in 1951. He died in a car accident in 1999 and she is survived by their daughter.
Lee Lamont, born January 13 1932, died February 13 2018