Charles Hamlen
Charles Hamlen, a 1965 graduate of Harvard College where
he majored in French Language and Literature began his professional
life as a high school French teacher. After eleven years in the classroom,
with an interim year in Paris doing graduate work at the Sorbonne, he
moved in 1977 to New York to start a career as an artist manager, founding
Hamlen/Landau Management with his business partner Edna Landau in 1979.
In 1984, Hamlen/Landau Management was acquired by the International
Management Group, becoming IMG Artists. As Co-Director of IMG Artists
from 1984-1992, Mr. Hamlen looked after the careers of artists including
violinists Joshua Bell, Leila Josefowicz and Itzhak Perlman; flutists
James Galway and Carol Wincenc; the Emerson String Quartet; and pianists
Stephen Hough, Evgeny Kissin, Jean-Yves Thibaudet and André Watts.
In 1993 Mr. Hamlen left IMG Artists to found Classical Action: Performing
Arts Against AIDS, a not-for-profit organization which draws upon the
talents, resources and generosity of the performing arts community to
raise and distribute funds for AIDS-related services across the United
States. Classical Action, which has distributed more than $3 million
to AIDS service providers nationwide, is a fundraising program of Broadway
Cares/Equity Fights AIDS, the nation's largest industry-based AIDS fundraising
and grant-making organization. Funds are raised through special gala
events, private house concerts, recording and merchandising projects,
individual donations, and foundation and corporate support. Virtually
every sector of the performing arts world has demonstrated its commitment
and support of the work of Classical Action, including individual artists,
concert presenters, orchestras, opera companies, recording companies,
managers, publicists, and the media.
Mr. Hamlen has been the recipient of numerous awards, including the
1998 Jerry Willis Award from the Western Arts Alliance, in recognition
of "an outstanding performing arts program which serves as an example
of excellence and leadership"; and the 2000 Eos Orchestra's Michael
Palm Award, presented by its 1999 recipient, Academy-award winning composer
John Corigliano.
