No Formulas: Park Avenue Artists Reimagines the Agency to Find the Arts’ Deep Language

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.”