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Summary

Following his studies on the performance course at the Royal College of Music, London, Liam Abramson gained a business degree from the University of Buckingham before embarking upon a full-time performing and lecturing career. For three years Liam taught cello at the Royal College of Music (Junior Department), and since 1997 has been the Head of Business for Musicians and Head of the Centre for Student Professional Development (CSPD) at the Royal Academy of Music, London (a position he held simultaneously at the Trinity College of Music, London up until 2002). As a board member, Liam held the Marketing Chair at the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra and has recently been invited to sit on the board of the Cambridge Arts Center. For the 10 years, Liam combined his time as the head of the CSPD in London with his work as a management consultant and trainer, first as an associate for Learning Performance Seminars and then for Hemsley Fraser Group Inc. In addition, Liam is the founder and CEO of HighgateGlobal Ltd, a management consultancy specializing in the for profit and non-profit arts industry. Liam has published over 100 articles on all aspects of the music business (from marketing to management) including business book reviews and company profiles.

Arts Background

Liam first came to recognition when he participated in a series of masterclasses with Pierre Fournier at the age of ten. Born in South Africa he commenced his full-time music education at the Royal College of Music, London in 1984 on a Foundation Scholarship. His teachers have included Amaryllis Fleming, Uzi Wiesel and William Pleeth. He has also participated in masterclasses with Yo-Yo Ma, Ralph Kirshbaum and Bernard Greenhouse and has received scholarships to study with Karine Georgian at the Dartington International Summer School and William Pleeth at the Aldeburgh Festival. Liam has won numerous competitions including the prestigious Madame Suggia Gift, which he won for four consecutive years.

In 1992 he was the recipient of the Eagle Star Award and the Oxford University Press Award for the String Category Winner in the Royal Over-Seas League Music Competition and was also awarded a special commendation at the Tunbridge Wells International Competition later in that same year. As a recitalist, Liam has performed throughout the UK including concerts in Bath, Cambridge, Edinburgh, Manchester, Oxford, Southampton and the major venues (including the Purcell Room and Wigmore Hall) throughout London.

Liam has also performed at numerous music festivals including the Brighton Festival, Pyrford Court Annual Season, Beethoven Festival and the Park Lane Group Series. He has made many concerto appearances throughout the UK performing the Beethoven Triple Concerto, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Haydn C major and CPE Bach cello concertos. His other concerto performances have taken him to the east coast of the USA and South Africa where he performed with the Transvaal Philharmonic Orchestra. Internationally, Liam has performed as a recitalist and chamber musician in Germany, Russia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Israel.

As a chamber musician, Liam was a founder member of the London Archduke Piano Trio and the Artistic Director of The English Cello Ensemble. In addition, Liam was the Head of Performance and Advanced Studies at the Oxford Cello School for five years; from the year 2000 Liam has been the Director of Intermediate Courses at Pro Corda International Chamber Music School (where he also founded the Musical Encounters Course and still coaches), spent three years as a cello teacher at the Royal College of Music (Junior Department) and was the Founder and Artistic Director of the Trafalgar Square Festival held in London annually.

Together with pianist Charles Wiffen, Liam’s commercial CD recordings include the Rachmaninov and Mendelssohn cello sonatas for ROSL and the two Brahms cello sonatas for Sheldon Classics. Liam has also recorded for BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio Oxford and the South African Broadcasting Corporation.

Business and Arts Training and Consultancy

In 1997, Liam devised a core course of study in Business and Professional Development for Musicians, a twenty-lecture series preparing musicians for a career in the music industry. As the first accredited course of its type in the United Kingdom covering subjects from marketing to fundraising to recording CDs, these lectures are still provided as a core element of the music degree program at the Royal Academy of Music, where Liam taught these subjects for 10 years.Liam is a regular conference and seminar speaker on music and arts business related subjects.

In January 2002 he was he only speaker to be invited from Europe to present a paper at the Chamber Music America Annual Conference in New York. Specializing in the marketing and branding of arts organizations, Liam has subsequently spoken at numerous conferences including a second invitation to speak at the Chamber Music America conference, The Philadelphia Music Project, MUSO Career Development Conference and the Working Musician Conference. In 2007, Liam was invited to speak at the New England Conservatory of Music, Oberlin College and the University of Colorado, Boulder where he presented a paper on strategic analysis for arts organizations as part of the music entrepreneurship conference. He is also a member of the Network of Music Career Development Officers (NETMCDO), where he has facilitated numerous sessions as part of their annual conferences.

Board Positions and Volunteer Activies

Liam was invited to be a board member of the Boston Philharmonic Orchestra, where he held the Marketing Chair for one year responsible for the creation and execution of a short to long term marketing plan for the orchestra. In addition, he has sat on the Marketing Board of the Pro Corda School for Chamber Musician and the development committee for the Oxford Cello School. He has recently been invited to join the board of the Cambridge Arts Center in Cambridge, MA. He has worked with numerous arts organizations including music schools, orchestras and recording companies, helping them develop marketing plans, strategic plans and fundraising campaigns.

To date, Liam has raised over $10,000 for he Leukemia & Lymphoma Society through his work with the Hike for Discovery program. Now in his fifth season with HFD, Liam has spent two season as a mentor and is in his second season as the hike leader, training and helping other fundraising hikers to achieve their hiking and fundraising goals.