MD Janis Susskind looks back on her 46 years at classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes

Janis Susskind OBE will conclude her tenure as MD of classical music publisher Boosey & Hawkes in June – an incredible 46 years after she joined the company. Steven Lankenau, president of Boosey & Hawkes, will assume full leadership of international operations from July 1, 2026. In the current edition of Music Week , we interview both senior executives at Boosey & Hawkes. Boosey & Hawkes, which is part of Concord, is approaching its centenary in 2030. Home to over 5,000 composers and more than 20,000 works, it represents composers including Béla Bartók, Leonard Bernstein, Benjamin Britten, Igor Stravinsky, John Adams, Jeanine Tesori, Joan Armatrading , Unsuk Chin, Steve Reich and Joe Hisaishi. Susskind joined Boosey & Hawkes in 1980, rising through the ranks to become managing director in 2012. Throughout her career, Susskind was instrumental in the company’s growth and transformation. In 2003, she served on the executive team that guided Boosey & Hawkes through its transition from public to private ownership. She championed an international strategy for promoting composers, driving a more than threefold increase in new music revenues since 2004. Here, Janis Susskind r eflects on her key achievements over the decades and the strengths of the Concord-owned company that will drive further growth... How do you reflect on your long service at the company? “During my time here, we've had three ownership changes. It was a public company in the UK when I first joined it in 1980, then went public to private in 2003. I, with John Minch, was part of the executive team that took it private with HC capital. Then we were bought by Imagem with backing from the Dutch pension fund, and owned by them for 10 years, and now, very happily, with Concord. So that's pretty unusual for a classical music publisher. “In terms of the creative side, the 1980s were quite a watershed moment for the way we were developing the catalogue. We had this fantastic catalogue of 20th century, great classical composers, and it was this fantastic foundation. But we also needed to open our horizons and deal with composers that were a broader spectrum. If I look back to that time, we signed deals with Steve Reich, which was quite unusual at that time, with John Adams, with Henryk Górecki, including the Third Symphony just before it went big, and with the [Leonard] Bernstein estate for a lot of work. So that set a direction of travel that said we weren't going to be just following one orthodox line in contemporary classical music. In 1997, we signed Karl Jenkins, who had just had his big explosion with the Adiemus – Songs Of Sanctuary record, and he needed a publisher to help collect the royalties, and he was happy to come with us. So we were going to spread ourselves in multiple directions. And that's been really a key part of my whole time in the company.” How did that more contemporary business grow? “We broadened our own definition of classical and I'm just proud of the growth we've found. When I first started, contemporary classical music was this miniscule niche, and for every single performance we achieved there were cheers in the office, each one was kind of thrillingly good. And now I can't keep track of it all. It's grown substantially, and it's made up lost ground when we have lost major copyrights due to expiry over the years. So I would say that the new music side of the growth is something that I consider a very big achievement from the teams.” What does that more contemporary classical business look like now? “A lot of it is actually core classical writers, people who write for symphony orchestras and opera houses and ballet companies. We act as managers for most of them, and there may be 40 or 50 active worldwide with whom we have exclusive relationships. A lot of them are just writing core classical music.” You're from the US originally, what brought you to the UK? And what was classical publishing like as a female executive in the 1980s and 1990s? “It was marriage that brought me to England, and then I was widowed and looked for my first job. So actually, my entire working life has been in the UK. Classical music publishing was a very old-fashioned business when I joined – there was the Telex machine in the basement and memos – it was just not dynamic. And we were also hampered when we were part of a PLC with an instrument manufacturing company; we were the cash cow for them, and we were not being invested in. So I think what has changed over the years greatly is that the dynamism has come in and the investment. Concord and previous owners have invested in us, have helped us to get better and better and more dynamic. But, boy, was it old-fashioned, sleepy, musty and dusty when I first joined.” The 1980s were quite a watershed moment for the way we were developing the catalogue Janis Susskind It's been such a large part of your life. How do you feel now about stepping down this summer? “It was not an easy decision. I've been thinking about it for a little while, and also wanting to do the right thing by the really gifted executives I've got working with me, and many of whom have worked with me for over 20 or 30 years. Obviously, I'm going to miss aspects of it. I'm going to particularly miss the teams and the composers, but I don't plan to be a stranger. I'm going to continue to live in London, go to concerts. I'm not doing it because I want to rest. I'm doing it because it feels like the right next, next chapter.” What does the shift in leadership from London to New York mean for the company? “I think from the very early days, we decided we had to look internationally, and we had to use technology to the full. We’ve been joined up in our thinking across all territories and working well together. Concord has been continuing to invest in our infrastructure – our digital infrastructure and our communications infrastructure. It's a substantial investment, and we're really appreciative of that. It's continuing to make a difference.” As more investment comes in, have you been signing more contemporary classical composers? “I would say that the contemporary classical side has been a growing portion of the total pie, partly because, as some of these very big, giant figures from the 20th century have gone out of copyright, that balance has changed. But we've needed both. It's a long game, isn't it? It always has been – it tends to be a marriage, not a fling. We spend a lot of time on developing careers, thinking strategically about the long term. And because we do life of copyright deals, we can do that because we know that we will reap the rewards of all the work we put in.” Is there more of a pop/rock crossover with some signings in recent years such as Joan Armatrading for her orchestral performance? “Joan Armatrading was partly because she already had a connection to Concord through her other works. So it was actually more to do with, how do we leverage the Concord connection and make the most of that? We brought the classical expertise to it, and could help her with that. In fact, she's written a choral piece as well since then. I think the other recent thing was the deal we signed with Joe Hisaishi for some of the Studio Ghibli anime music, for some of his concert works, but also suites from the very famous, much loved films.” Although recorded music is not traditionally the biggest income source, how has streaming worked for Boosey & Hawkes? “In terms of the widening of the listenership, I was really struck by the statistics I saw after Covid, which showed that listening to classical music through streamers had increased . That was partly because people had time to explore, and the ease of exploring through Spotify and other things was there. So although I don't think it has moved the dial financially, it has potentially given us more listeners for the live performances that are where most of our income comes from.” There has been speculation about the future ownership of Concord, what does that mean for Boosey & Hawkes? “It's not substantiated, so we just move on. And also I'm living proof, and my colleagues here are living proof, of the fact that we've actually improved each time there's been a change. With the public to private [ownership], we outsourced a lot of things to a competitor, and made that work really well. So it’s just open minds. I've been very pleased that Emma Kerr, who has been working with me since she joined as my assistant 33 years ago, has just been promoted to SVP here, and she will be a very close help to Steven and also on the international side of things. She's she's very well connected and very well known." What has changed over the years greatly is that the dynamism has come in and the investment Janis Susskind Is classical music in a healthy place in terms of the audience numbers? “I’m involved in the boards of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Ballet and Opera, and in both of those cases I’m seeing very good attendance figures for the concerts. The LSO does very adventurous programmes, they put new music in a lot, and they are running at 90% of capacity at the Barbican, very high percentages for opera and ballet as well. There is some evidence that the newer repertoire is what attracts the younger audience in some cases. So that’s also driving it. I think the only other undertow is about music education in schools. That’s much commented upon and there are some moves afoot to try and address that now in the UK, which is important.” How has your international promotion strategy for the composers helped the repertoire? “With the international promotions side, we’ve used technology to knit the teams together. So we have hubs in New York, Berlin and London with very experienced teams there, and they travel out from their hubs and use technology and personal meetings to spread the word. We’ve really honed it over the years, particularly in anniversary campaigns. If it’s a centenary or a 50th anniversary, we go out years early and start influencing and talk to artist managers about which of their artists will do this repertoire. We’ve got a whole machine that now works really seamlessly internationally. Last year and into this season, it is the 50th anniversary of Shostakovich [who died in 1975]. For that anniversary that is ongoing, we’ve doubled the revenue in the UK. So it’s meaningful and we’ve had other anniversaries in the past with Prokofiev and Britten and so forth. So we know how to move the dial on those things. “Just to shout out to our Berlin team, because when Concord very kindly purchased Sikorski , the Hamburg-based [publishing] imprint, in 2019, it brought a lot of rights together under one roof. Boosey & Hawkes had some rights in the UK and Australia, [Sikorski] had them in most of Europe. It gives us a big footprint with, for instance, Shostakovich and a lot of access to Russian repertoire. Once again, that was Concord helping us to get even bigger and better.” Finally, will you be taking part in the 100th anniversary of Boosey & Hawkes in a few years’ time? “Well, I hope I'll be invited to the celebration! Actually, in the world of classical music publishing, we're a baby. If you look at Schott Music Publishing, they go back to Beethoven. We're relatively young in this kind of firmament.” Subscribers can read the Boosey & Hawkes magazine interview here . For more stories like this, and to keep up to date with all our market leading news, features and analysis, sign up to receive our daily Morning Briefing newsletter