Konzertdirektion Schmid was founded by Hans Ulrich Schmid, a young businessman who, after successfully completing his musical studies, decided against a career as a pianist. Instead he decided to head in a different direction.

He began a commercial apprenticeship, and then joined the Hamburg piano manufacturers Steinway & Sons, where he was soon promoted to director’s assistant. His next step brought independence: in 1957 Hans Ulrich Schmid and his business partner Alfred Döll founded Klavierhaus Döll, a piano shop in Hannover’s Schmiedestraße no. 8.

1959Hans Ulrich Schmid didn’t sell pianos for long. Concerts taking place in the cellar under the shop led to a sideline in contract negotiations for pianists such as Karl Engel and resulted in the founding of Konzertdirektion Hans Ulrich Schmid.

In the initial years the artists’ list boasted names such as Alfred Brendel, Helen Donath, Pierre Boulez, Sir John Barbirolli and Sir Georg Solti.

1968Christoph Eschenbach joined Konzertdirektion Schmid (signing up for world-wide management) at the very beginning of his career. His US debut at the invitation of the Cleveland Orchestra and George Szell was described in the company’s first Journal released during the 1968/69 season.

In 1977/78 the company’s Journal reported on his conducting, remarking on, "a double talent, which attentive observers are already convinced will develop beyond the bounds of all possible expectations."

After a few years a steadily growing tour-department developed alongside the company’s activities in Artist Management. The Hallé Orchestra Manchester under the direction of Sir John Barbirolli, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Georg Solti, the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Colin Davis, the London Symphony Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields all entrusted the still unknown Hans Ulrich Schmid with their German tours.

1969Even at this early stage KDS supported unconventional projects – Hans Ulrich Schmid describes a tour by the Residentie Orkest Den Haag under the direction of Pierre Boulez, “We had a number of concerns whilst organising this project. The programme included Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Beethoven’s Second Symphony, “Eclat” by Boulez, Anton Webern’s Five Movements op. 5 and his Symphony op. 21, and we wondered how the public would react to such an unconventional programme.” The tour was a triumphant success and the press hailed Pierre Boulez as an “important corrective influence on our increasingly shallow musical life”.

1970 Hans Ulrich Schmid took personal leave of the late Sir John Barbirolli in an account in the company’s Journal about the conductor’s last but one concert in Germany. “One had a sudden, painful feeling that a great personal, and perhaps final, avowal had been delivered here at the gateway between this world and the next.”

Tours with the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Eugen Jochum, the New Philharmonia Orchestra with Otto Klemperer, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra and the first European Tours by the top American orchestras followed.

1971The Boston Symphony orchestra made its first European tour under the Management of Konzertdirektion Schmid. The orchestra was conducted by William Steinberg assisted by the young Michael Tilson Thomas, who also led certain concerts on this three week tour which took the orchestra to cities such as London, Berlin, Vienna, Naples, Barcelona, Lyon and Paris.

Hans Ulrich Schmid described the Chicago Symphony’s first tour in 1971 under the direction of Georg Solti and Carlo Maria Giuliani “an orchestral tour which, not least because of a time span of six weeks, was one of the company’s ‘great projects’ in the 1971/1972 season.” The tour began with a recording of Mahler’s 8th Symphony in Vienna and included four concerts at the Edinburgh Festival, two at the Flanders Festival, and one each in Gothenburg and Stockholm, a televised performance in Frankfurt’s Jahrhunderthalle, appearances in Hannover, Hamburg and Berlin, two at the Vienna Musikverein, three at La Scala Milan, one at the Munich Opera and two each in Paris and London.

1972/73 The Journal launched a passionate debate on the subject of “Music in Crisis” – clearly already a theme of particular relevance at that time. Hans Ulrich Schmid remarked that there had seldom been a time in which “traditions have been less respected; the status quo so actively questioned, than in ours.” And furthermore, “ …because a concert agency (ideally an intermediary between artists and presenters) can now, less than ever before, afford to confine itself to organising concert dates and closing contracts, booking hotel rooms and calculating fees.” Three well known critics and musicologists made pleas for innovative programming (in which, “…star cult and new discoveries, pleasure and indoctrination (…) have equal status), a gradual decrease in routine performance practices, the development of “educational concepts” and the encouragement of a concert atmosphere in which a young public in “polo necks would not cause offence”.

1974 In 1974 Murray Perahia joined the artists’ list. A year later he was hailed as a representative of “A New Generation of Pianists”. “Tomorrow he too will be called a distinguished representative of the young generation.” (W.-E. von Lewinski in the Konzertdirektion Schmid Journal)

1976 Hans Ulrich Schmid clinched the deal for Pierre Boulez to conduct the legendary  “Ring” by Patrice Chéreau at the Bayreuth Festival.

In the 70’s many tours took place with even more American Orchestras including the Cleveland Orchestra under the direction of Lorin Maazel, the New York Philharmonic with Pierre Boulez, the National Symphony Orchestra Washington under the direction of Antal Doráti and the Pittsburgh Symphony with André Previn.

In the vocal department Helen Donath was soon joined by personalities such as Janet Baker, Nicola Gedda and Edith Mathis.

1976 The vocal department of KDS merged with the Bueker agency forming Bueker/Schmid Management, thus expanding its list with prominent names including Wolfgang Schöne, Hans Sotin, Doris Soffel and Edda Moser.

1980 Konzertdirektion Schmid went on to take over the Amsterdam agency Interartists, a natural development in Schmid’s long standing and close collaborations with various Dutch orchestras, amongst them the Concertgebouw Orkest, the Residentie Orkest Den Haag and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. The company was managed locally by General Manager Hanna Zubrzycka. As a result, Konzertdirektion Schmid’s first foreign operations began to take shape.

In the 1980’s Hans Ulrich Schmid concentrated his personal energies on orchestral tour planning and on the management of a few selected conductors which included Dennis Russell Davies, Sir Colin Davis, Antal Doráti, Eugen Jochum, André Previn, Sir Georg Solti and Günter Wand.

The tour list for the 1982/83 season numbered 21 projects: three European tours of the Philadelphia Orchestra under the direction of Riccardo Muti, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra with Andrew Davis and the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Carlo Maria Giulini; in addition, numerous German tours of, for example, the London Symphony Orchestra with Claudio Abbado, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Simon Rattle, the Rotterdam Philharmonic with Kurt Sanderling, the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Sir Georg Solti and Klaus Tennstedt, the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra with Karl Engel and the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Wolfgang Sawallisch.

1984 Konzertdirektion Schmid took on the representation of Yo-Yo Ma and Mitsuko Uchida

1986 Cornelia Schmid joined the family business after having completed a master’s degree in English and German and gaining practical experience at Harold Holt in London and Interartists in Amsterdam. She joined the Artists’ Management department, looking after artists such as Jorge Bolet, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Lynn Harrell, Håkan Hardenberger, Marek Janowski, Leonard Slatkin, David Zinman, to name but a few.

1992 The PR Department of Konzertdirektion Schmid was established to provide additional services to artists and orchestras represented by the agency.

1994Hans Ulrich Schmid withdrew from active management and Cornelia Schmid took over the leadership of the company.

1998In close cooperation with Van Walsum Management, Konzertdirektion Schmid opened a London office on their premises. Karen McDonald, the only member of staff in the new office, took on the responsibility of Konzertdirektion Schmid’s General Management clients particularly for the UK, Scandinavia and Australia. The office has since expanded to a staff of five and in 2006 it moved into new offices in the heart of London’s theatre district, Covent Garden. KDS UK has already proved highly successful, with a number of its own General Management artists such as Håkan Hardenberger, Isabelle van Keulen, John Storgårds and the rising Latvian Conductor Andris Nelsons.

2004In recognition of his achievements as one of Europe’s most important music managers in the 20th Century, Hans Ulrich Schmid received an album containing personal letters, photographs and dedications from numerous american orchestras and the conductors who have been closely connected to the Konzertdirektion Schmid for decades.

2007With nearly 30 members of staff, some 40 orchestral tours per season, approximately 80 artists on the list, its own PR Department, an office in London and concert series  in various cities, Konzertdirektion Schmid has grown from a family oriented business with a long tradition, into a medium-sized concern with a worldwide network of contacts. In 2009 KDS celebrates its 50th anniversary.

Andris Nelsons and Martin Helmchen © Marco Borggreve