Andrew Lloyd Webber Teams for New Musical Theater Licensing Company
By: Caryn Robbins Sep. 15, 2016
Two industry-leading, independent and like-minded music companies, The Really Useful Group andConcord Bicycle Music, have joined forces today, and are proud to announce their innovative new partnership, designed to provide best-in-class services to the creators of musical theatre works: The Musical Company ("TMC").
Operating from Really Useful Group and Concord Bicycle Music offices in London and New York, respectively, TMC will be owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber, Concord Bicycle Music and The Really Useful Group.
TMC is also proud to announce the appointment of Sean Patrick Flahaven as its founding CEO, effective Monday, October 3, 2016. For the past eight years, Sean has enjoyed enormous success asWarner/Chappell Music's SVP Theatre and Catalog Development. He has been a producer on nine albums nominated for Grammy Awards - including this year's Grammy-winning, Platinum-selling, chart-topping smash hit, Hamilton. Prior to Warner, he was a producer, music director, orchestrator, composer, playwright, and professional & amateur licensing executive.
At inception, The Really Useful Group has appointed TMC as exclusive agent to manage professional and amateur performance licensing of the works jointly owned by Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice -Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar and Evita plus Andrew Lloyd Webber's solo repertoire including such evergreen productions as The Phantom of the Opera, Cats, School of Rock, Starlight Express, and Sunset Boulevard. Lloyd Webber now has three shows playing on Broadway simultaneously, along with 36 first class productions playing around the world.
On behalf of the venture, CEO Jake Wisely and the talented Bicycle Music Company publishing team will also manage and administer Andrew Lloyd Webber's original song portfolio worldwide, includingMemory, The Music Of The Night, All I Ask Of You, The Phantom Of The Opera, Think Of Me, Pie Jesu,Love Changes Everything and hundreds more.
Comparably, Concord Bicycle Music currently manages songs and recordings by a diverse and eclectic portfolio of talent that includes Paul McCartney, George Harrison, James Taylor, Paul Simon, R.E.M., Ray Charles, Creedence Clearwater Revival, John Coltrane, Billie Holiday, St. Vincent, Miles Davis, Joan Sebastian, Robert Johnson, Carole King, Cyndi Lauper, Nine Inch Nails, Tony Bennett, Evanescence, Dwight Yoakam, The Traveling Wilburys and hundreds more.
At launch of the partnership, Concord Bicycle Music has also named TMC as the manager of its interests in the works of Pulitzer, Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony winner Marvin Hamlisch, including songs, film scores and the musicals A Chorus Line, They're Playing Our Song, The Goodbye Girl and Sweet Smell of Success.
Breaking the news on behalf of the partners, Concord Bicycle Music Chairman Steve Smith explains:"TMC enters the market with a unique and superior skillset in support of musical theatre creators: professional & amateur licensing, music publishing and original cast recording. Exceptionally well-capitalized. Asset rich. Under one roof. Worldwide. And determined to both create new opportunities for, and preserve long-term value of the works of its affiliated writers and rights holders."
Andrew Lloyd Webber observes: "Steve Smith and his team at Concord Bicycle Music have distinguished themselves as both proactive advocates for creators, and quality stewards of artistic legacy. We are extremely enthusiastic about collaborating with them to create an exceptional, multi-disciplinary theatrical music rights management company."
Smith continues: "Andrew Lloyd Webber is a rare breed as both a composer and producer...it's hard to imagine a better vote of confidence in our new venture than his commitment to entrust the administration of his repertoire to TMC. In addition, we will support his extensive personal commitment to youth music education, which has opened up the world of musical theatre to generations of young artists and theatre-goers."
Flahaven comments: "I am excited and honored to be leading an exciting new venture with unique, unparalleled service for both established and next generation musical theatre writers. Starting with these iconic catalogs and the support of Andrew, RUG, and CBM gives us a terrific base from which to actively seek new talent."
Lisbeth R. Barron, Chairman & CEO of Barron International Group, LLC, initiated and executed the partnership transaction.
Concord Bicycle Music is one of the largest independent, fully integrated recorded music and publishing companies in the world. With offices in Beverly Hills, New York, Nashville and Cleveland, Concord Bicycle Music's portfolio of more than 10,000 active album recordings includes at least 243 Grammy winners and 370 RIAA certified gold, platinum and multi-platinum releases. Concord Bicycle Music's songbook includes over 120,000 copyrighted works and more than 750 Billboard chart hits. Concord Bicycle Music is owned by Barings Alternative Investments, Sound Investors, and seventy institutional and individual partners, including forty members of the company's management team. Barings Alternative Investments is a leading investor in intellectual property assets including music, other copyrights, filmed content and patents and trademarks, with over $7.4 billion in total assets under management. At the forefront of intellectual property valuation, acquisition and utilization, the Concord Bicycle Music investment underscores our partners' belief in the lasting and appreciating global value of superior original entertainment content.
The Really Useful Group is Andrew Lloyd Webber's theatre producing and rights licensing company and controls the theatrical rights for all of Andrew's works, including The Phantom of the Opera, Cats,Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Sunset Boulevard and School of Rock - The Musical. The Really Useful Group reached over 20 million people across the globe last year from live theatre and concert audiences, cinema goers, television viewers and music fans, to social media and art lovers. This year The Really Useful Group continues to work across film, television and theatre as it produces and develops new projects and partnerships worldwide alongside its ongoing work in education, amateur licensing and music publishing.
Andrew Lloyd Webber is the composer of some of the world's best known musicals including Cats, Evita, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Jesus Christ Superstar, The Phantom of the Opera and Sunset Boulevard. School of Rock, a stage version of the movie, is his latest musical and a hit on Broadway with a London production opening next month. His awards, both as composer and producer, include seven Tonys, seven Oliviers, a Golden Globe, an Oscar, the Praemium Imperiale, the Richard Rodgers Award for Excellence in Musical Theatre, a BASCA Fellowship, the Kennedy Center Honor and three Grammys, including Best Contemporary Classical Composition for Requiem, his setting of the Latin Requiem mass which contains one of his best known compositions, Pie Jesu. He owns seven London theatres, including the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, the New London Theatre and the London Palladium. He was knighted by Her Majesty The Queen in 1992 and created an honorary member of the House of Lords in 1997. He is passionate about the importance of music in education, and the Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation has become one of Britain's leading charities supporting the arts and music.
Sean Patrick Flahaven has 20 years of experience in creative and management roles in theatre production, licensing, and music publishing. For the past 8 years, Sean was Senior Vice President of Theatre and Catalog Development for Warner/Chappell Music, where he built a roster of the best theatre songwriters as well as representing the majority of the catalogs in the Great American Songbook. In addition, he oversaw Warner's worldwide theatrical producing and licensing, print/digital sheet music, and orchestral rental. He has been a producer on 19 albums, 9 of which were nominated for Grammys, including the Grammy-winning, Platinum-selling, chart-topping Hamilton. He has produced or managed over 100 shows for landmark institutions on and off-Broadway and was General Manager and Director of Music and Marketing for Theatrical Rights Worldwide and a music and marketing editor for Music Theatre International and the Rodgers & Hammerstein Organization. As a playwright, composer, and arranger, his work has been performed in the USA and at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Sean was also a music director, arranger/orchestrator, and/or music copyist for 21 productions off-Broadway and regionally. He has been on the faculty of the NYU-Tisch Graduate Musical Theatre Writing Program for 14 years, serves on the board of the Music Publishers Association (President), the ASCAP Symphonic & Concert Committee, the Dramatists Guild's Music and Anti-Piracy Committees, and the Tony Awards Nominating Committee. Sean received degrees with multiple honors from Boston College, New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, and Brooklyn College.
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