Ariel Artists staff at the Chamber Music America conference in January 2020. From L to R, founder/director Oni Buchanan, concert & tour manager Luc Cianfarani, and artist representative Matthew Kulas.
Founded in 2009 by pianist and poet Oni Buchanan, Ariel Artists is a management company designed for innovative artists who are expanding and re-contextualizing classical/contemporary music for the 21st century. Though Ariel's soloists, chamber ensembles, and orchestras have a wide range of styles and distinctive voices, they share with each other (and with Ariel's staff) a driving passion for artistic exploration and vibrant contemporary expression. Ariel's artists specialize in innovative concert programming, thought-provoking interdisciplinary projects, and customized educational/outreach offerings.
Launched in March 2020, Ariel AVANT is the innovation arm of Ariel Artists, broadening our mission beyond the Ariel roster to the full field of classical music. AVANT hosts an annual “innovation competition,” each functioning as an open invitation to classical musicians and chamber ensembles to push forward the evolution of classical music as an art form. Concert presenters, industry thought leaders, and Ariel Artists roster artists all join forces to identify “best ideas” in the marketplace and reward them with development time, commissioning support, and performance opportunities. AVANT takes the competition beyond artistic mastery, focusing on relevance, innovative power, inclusive dialogue, diverse participation, and positive impact as metrics of excellence.
Launched in July 2020 and rapidly evolving, ImmerSphere is a ground-breaking performance format merging augmented reality (AR) and the performing arts. Captivating and immersive, the ImmerSphere format overcomes physical limitations and offers a way to meet again in any 360 space, as well as build new worlds together through artistic imagination. Celebrated as “radical digital defiance” by Ben Dietschi of the renowned DeVos Institute for Artist Management, ImmerSphere “shatters limitation[s]…it’s pushing the limits of available tech to reconstruct a fuller spectrum of audience experiences.” Ariel Artists has teamed up with the visionary engineers at Hoverlay to create this resource for the performing arts sector, built with a model that upholds the value of art and preserves the economy of the arts industry.
