Forward-thinking creative agency Park Avenue Artists has joined forces with innovative independent music publisher Primary Wave Music  to create and tour a radically new approach to amplifying and reveling in the voices of legacy artists. 

Their first collaboration is “The Voice of Whitney: A Symphonic Celebration,” coming to the stage in August 2024. The Chicago Philharmonic will provide a lush foundation for original master recordings of the singer’s most beloved performances. Before traveling to top venues across the country, the celebration will premiere at the Ravinia Festival near Chicago. (For additional info, see ravinia.org)

“The Voice of Whitney” represents the first shared effort between the partners, in what is planned to be an ongoing collaboration to craft compelling performances using the voice or instrument of late, great musicians. These orchestral concerts pair refined symphonic scores with high-quality recordings to shine a new light on favorite works and songs.

This creative approach to expand the concert has been part of PAA’s work for years. The agency’s unique expertise in the symphonic space ranges from a sold-out concert at the Dolby Theater for Grammy-winning electronic musician ZEDD, to the acclaimed PBS special Seasons of Cuba with Joshua Bell. With its attention to musical detail and its open-minded engagement with technology, PAA is an ideal partner to transform the evergreen work of legacy artists into fresh entertainment.

To create shows like “The Voice of Whitney,” PAA worked with The Estate of Whitney E. Houston and Primary Wave Music to find rare footage and license recordings. Whitney’s vocal part, separated from the instrumental bed fans know from her songs, will resound via high-quality recording over a lush symphonic score played live and created to highlight what made Whitney so compelling. From her legendary Super Bowl XXV performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” to timeless hits “I Wanna Dance With Somebody,” “Greatest Love of All,” “I Will Always Love You,” and “How Will I Know,” among many others, Whitney fans will be immersed in the great singer’s world as the evening weaves through her iconic songbook, film performances, intimate home videos, and never-before-seen photos and footage.

“We are constantly seeking new ways to bring culturally impactful, artful performances to more audiences,” says David Lai, PAA co-president.

 “This project highlights how legacy artists and their estates can continue to create meaningful experiences for music lovers, and ‘The Voice of Whitney’ is the first in several planned collaborations,” continues PAA co-president, Ross Michaels “We know it will be successful thanks to this partnership with Primary Wave.”
 

About Park Avenue Artists

Park Avenue Artists is a company of wide-ranging individuals, tastes, and artistic pursuits. From managing GRAMMY and EMMY award-winning artists, to creating virtual instrument software, they extend artist management, production, and intellectual property beyond their traditional scope.
 

About Primary Wave Music 

Primary Wave Music is the leading independent publisher of iconic and legendary music in the world. The company is home to some of the most iconic songwriters, artists, and record labels across the history of recorded music. The songs represented by Primary Wave Music include over 1,000 Top 10 singles and over 400 #1 hits. Throughout the company’s 15-year existence, Primary Wave Music has embraced an entrepreneurial spirit, offering and executing proactive one-of-a-kind ideas, unique services and marketing campaigns for our artists.  

About The Estate of Whitney E. Houston

The Estate of Whitney E. Houston was established in 2012, following the death of the international renowned superstar. Led, managed, and administered by Executor Pat Houston, the mission of the Estate is to further expand the global legacy of Whitney Houston. Through its partnership with Primary Wave Music, the Estate will continue the work of The Whitney E. Houston Legacy Foundation, as well as the expansion of music recordings, film, television, and theatrical projects; brand development, and new partnerships and initiatives that authentically represent Whitney Houston’s voice and heart for service, young people, education, and community.

Mixed reality—experiences that blend real-life with digital images and sound—can turn the familiar into the breathtaking. As mixed reality becomes a sought-after form of storytelling, new players are leaping to fill the gap between digital artists who know how to execute these complex projects and brands eager for impact.

That’s why innovative artist agency Park Avenue Artists has joined forces with Voidz, one of the biggest names in mixed reality, to form Unreality Co. (www.unrealityco.com) Unreality Co. will help clients develop a basic concept or idea for an experience or campaign into a full-blown mixed reality experience, guided directly by artists.

Voidz, whose work was chosen by Intel for their eagerly anticipated Encore AI exhibit in Toronto, has set the standard for mixed-reality works that mash up the everyday and the epic, the whimsical and the unnerving. His art has garnered collaborations with brands including Burberry, Nike,  L’Oreal, and Lenovo. Unreality Co. will draw on PAA’s entertainment industry savvy and tastemaking reputation, while applying all that Voidz has learned as an in-demand digital artist. Having an artist at the helm will ensure studio clients’ ideas leap to the next level in this new medium. 
While PAA has a long-standing reputation for its award-winning artists and music-based initiatives, “Music doesn’t exist in a vacuum; in every creative space, it’s woven together with other media to cultivate a multi-dimensional experience,” explains PAA co-president Ross Michaels. “By embracing this in-house, PAA has the opportunity to foster a more robust creative product. This complements our extensive background in production, whether it’s Grammy-winning projects, Emmy-winning TV specials, or building software instruments and is another way we can continue to put artists first.” 
“As a leader in the mixed-reality space for many years now, it's been exhilarating for me to watch it rise as a compelling and distinctive storytelling medium for brands. With mixed reality leading the charge in creative advertising, the future is full of exciting opportunities,” explains Voidz. “Unreality Co. was born out of a need for formal structure to tackle the growing demand for our mixed reality visuals. Brands were knocking on our doors, and we needed a dedicated commercial wing to handle the influx. Essentially, this is the business side of my mixed reality art venture.”
“Voidz is the preeminent artist in the mixed reality space. By having him at the creative helm of this new agency, we’ll be able to bring his work to more brands and into more spaces,” says PAA co-president David Lai. “Together, we are excited to create this agency to develop a robust platform for Voidz and the exciting new artists he wants to introduce to this new medium.”
 
About Park Avenue Artists

Park Avenue Artists is a company of wide-ranging individuals, tastes, and artistic pursuits. From managing GRAMMY and EMMY award-winning artists, to creating virtual instrument software, they extend artist management, production, and intellectual property beyond their traditional scope.

About Voidz

With an unmistakable style that merges the mundane with the surreal, Voidz has established himself as a pioneer in the emerging mixed-reality art movement. His works have been viewed hundreds of millions of times and lead to collaborations with a number of other high-profile artists and companies.

New York multihyphenate agency signs new talent, brings on booking co-director in ongoing push to create a new model for arts agencies and management.

Park Avenue Artists has expanded both its artist roster and its executive team in its booking division. This division extends PAA’s mission to transform how artists and agents collaborate to build meaningful, sustainable, creatively groundbreaking careers for some of the world’s most talented musicians and performers. 

As part of this expansion, the agency has formalized its management relationship with producer, bassist and DJ, Alissia. Alissia has produced and/or worked with many artists across multiple genres including Anderson .Paak, Nile Rodgers, Mary J. Blige, Bootsy Collins, DRAM, EarthGang, Calvin Harris, Cee-Lo Green, 21 Savage, Jamila Woods, Mark Ronson, Kaytranada, etc. Her Boogie Nights events have become a “must go” for artists in the music industry.  

PAA has also signed Natalie Tenenbaum to its management and booking rosters, the pianist, composer, and singer-songwriter who, in addition to a notable career performing around the world, has created original arrangements and orchestrations for Lang Lang's most recent album release with the London Royal Philharmonic (Universal Media Group/Deutsche Grammophon/Disney), created an original arrangement for Lang Lang & The Pentatonix, and worked with Tina Fey (Mean Girls) and David Byrne (American Utopia). 

Along with these unique voices, Greg Kastelman has joined the agency as Co-Director of Artist Bookings, teaming up with Co-Director Devi Reddy. Kastelman founded and ran his own booking agency for five years and built an artistry-focused roster of multidisciplinary artists who are now represented by PAA. Artists which are joining the PAA booking roster include Brazilian singer Badi Assad, Ethio-American singer Meklit Hadero, Venezuela performance artist Migguel Anggelo, violinist/storyteller Philippe Quint, and soulful Swedish/Thai artist Sirintip. They join PAA’s existing booking roster which features the inimitable Philip Glass Ensemble, Senegalese griot and percussionist, Aba Diop, Mexican pianist, Daniela Liebman, soprano Larisa Martinez, Broadway stars, Ashley Brown and Ryan Silverman, Forgotten Voices featuring violinist Kelly Hall-Tompkins, celebrated piano quintet The Five Browns, and guitarist Mark Lettieri of Snarky Puppy and the Fearless Flyers.  

Booking is an essential part of Park Avenue Artists’ agency philosophy. The company unites management, booking, and creative direction under one aegis, collaborating with premier artists, venues, and brands to craft extraordinary events and projects. The agency’s vision does not fit into the neat categories of past behind-the-scenes work in the arts, and the company seeks to build mutually reinforcing divisions that make artists thrive creatively and businesswise in the long term.

“Our goal is to translate artists’ ideas into meaningful work with engaged performing arts venues. The philosophy of our booking division epitomizes that process,” says PAA Co-President David Lai. “It’s about more than setting up a lucrative tour; it’s about establishing strong relationships, understanding what our presenting partners are wanting for their audiences, and laying foundations for ongoing creative partnerships.”

“We sit on two sides, the music industry and the fine arts/performing arts world, sides that rarely talk to each other. Because of that, very few people can do what we do,” adds Ross Michaels, PAA’s co-president. “We focus on artists who are culturally and musically relevant to an institution, and Greg and Devi’s approach truly supports that focus.” “PAA’s approach reaffirmed my confidence that artist managers and agents could be compassionate and forward thinking, affirming artists in their journey,” Kastelman notes. “I am thrilled to be working alongside Devi and the agency to tackle big challenges and embrace unique opportunities." 

About Park Avenue Artists
Park Avenue Artists is a company of wide-ranging individuals, tastes, and artistic pursuits. From managing GRAMMY and EMMY award-winning artists, to creating virtual instrument software, they extend artist management, production, and intellectual property beyond their traditional scope.

The gorgeous strings heard in world-renowned concert halls should also pour from a VR headset or game console. DJs can anchor orchestral concerts, and managers can produce Emmy-winning television specials. Generations can discover and rediscover the power of art in radically unexpected places and technological formats, with artists leading the way.

Yet the performing arts, technological innovation, and entertainment too often operate miles apart. Park Avenue Artists (PAA) connects them via high-caliber talent and carefully honed taste. Combining management and booking, new technologies and performance contexts, curation, and close collaborations with select brand partners, PAA turns artist ideas into multifaceted experiences and productions that derive new value for artists and audiences, from VR performance to virtual instruments to orchestral concerts by pop and EDM icons. The creative arts agency's model transcends traditional boundaries in artistic careers in pursuit of what the arts have long promised and can still deliver: cultural and emotional impact and meaning over the long term. 

PAA’s co-founders and co-presidents, David Lai and Ross Michaels, came from the performing arts world as both creators and managers. As a producer, Michaels’ work ran the gamut, producing for top-40 acts and creating the title music for famed commercial properties, such as The New Yorker podcast and Shaun T’s fitness program, Cize; today, he excels at working with premier brands and talent to find connections. Lai is a seasoned musician, music director, and conductor who conducted more than 6,000 performances of Broadway blockbuster The Phantom of the Opera. As a manager, he has represented and supported icons Itzhak Perlman, Joshua Bell, and Renée Fleming. Between them, they have produced platinum-selling and GRAMMY-winning artists; developed Emmy-winning shows and award-winning documentaries; accomplished enough for any artist or arts executive to feel proud of.

They knew they could do more. Both saw that an agency could and should expand beyond the expected scope to meet emerging challenges and opportunities. “We know how to get things done, how to produce records and set up a successful tour, for example,” notes Lai. “But we also have learned how to create things that are distinctly outside of the box.” Which is why PAA helped virtuoso violinist Joshua Bell create a VR experience and a virtual instrument based on tens of thousands of samples. It’s why they are regularly invited to curate major tech events, branded festivals and celebrations. 

“All the artists and projects we’ve worked with have a deep sense of musical language and fluency in that language. That allows them to communicate who they are as humans,” reflects Michaels. “If you have that ability to express yourself, if you understand your instrument or work so well, you can take the music off the page and let it speak in a wide range of contexts. It’s more than talent; an artist expresses something using musical language that generates long-standing resonance.” 

At a time when it can feel like virality rules, PAA leans into life-long artist careers, by seeing what truly distinguishes artists and by creating meaningful relationships with unexpected partners. “When everyone talks about artist development, they tend to talk numbers,” Michaels notes. “But look inward; what’s the DNA you’ve developed? There are different tools you can use and levers you can pull, but you have to have the gem of something truly unique to make this work long term.”

“We try not to follow formulas. It’s about a specific project or artist. Artists have the right instincts,” says Lai. “Artists are the boss; they know what we don’t. We need to listen and take their lead.”

This lead serves to guide PAA at every stage in an artist’s career. For GRAMMY-nominated singer-songwriter Yebba, Lai and Michaels made some unconventional decisions designed to give the gifted young artist room to breathe and flourish artistically before making a major-label play. She wanted to have full creative control, and staying independent gave her that artistic latitude. Had they pursued a more traditional fast track, there would have been temptation to jump into a deal that would not have given her freedom. 

For the unconventional string trio, Time for Three, at the onset of the pandemic, PAA immediately shifted the group’s focus from touring to writing and recording. The group recorded their first film score via their home studios for the Robin Wright film, Land. PAA approached the Philadelphia Orchestra during the pandemic where orchestras were sidelined to come up with a recording project which ultimately garnered the group their first Grammy nomination and win.

These non-formulaic and creative approaches lead to breathtakingly diverse outcomes. In just a few past examples, PAA worked with Bell to create a virtual instrument plugin for digital audio workstations (Joshua Bell Embertone) and a groundbreaking VR program for PlayStation. They produced a fully symphonic celebration for DJ and electronic music artist Zedd on the tenth anniversary of his seminal Clarity album which sold out the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. PAA is constantly and conscientiously expanding its capabilities, from growing its tour booking division to curating for a diverse group of new places and series, including working with Madison Square Garden to bring musical talent to Knicks and Rangers games and curating talent for the new Perelman Performing Arts Center. PAA has programmed events for Google, Hewlett Packard, Cadillac, and Ferrari, along with many other brand collaborations with the agency’s talent.

“We do what we do as partnerships, working with artists and with brands or organizations to achieve what we want to achieve. We have so much experience on the creative side, whereas a manager would have typically just worried about the deal, about getting it signed,” reflects Lai. “Management has to evolve to work with diverse artists and bring real value. What artists need now is a team that can grow the business and also act as a creative director.”