How to build and maintain an opera house contacts database
An agency's contacts are its most valuable asset. Knowing who casts at each house, who plans an orchestra's soloists, and which festival director likes which repertoire is what makes an agency useful to artists. Yet in many agencies these contacts live in individual inboxes and leave when a staff member does. This guide explains how to structure an opera house and presenter contacts database and keep it accurate.
Model organisations, departments and people
A flat list of names and emails is not enough. Presenters are organisations with departments and people, and people move between organisations.
| Level | Example fields |
|---|---|
| Organisation | Name, type (opera house, orchestra, festival, concert hall), city, country, website |
| Department | Artistic administration, casting, planning, education, press |
| Person | Name, role, email, phone, language, notes |
| Relationship | Which artists they have engaged, last contact, history |
When a casting director moves from one house to another, update their person record and keep the history, because the relationship moves with them.
What to record for each presenter
- Type of organisation and repertoire focus.
- Season planning patterns: how far ahead they cast, when seasons are announced.
- Who decides casting and soloists.
- Ensemble or young artist programmes.
- Past engagements of your artists and outcomes.
- Notes from meetings and performances.
Start from public sources
Opera houses, orchestras and festivals publish their seasons, staff lists and contact pages. Industry associations publish member directories; for example, Opera Europa is an association of opera companies and festivals. Build your initial list from these, then enrich it with what you learn from conversations.
Respect data protection
Contacts are personal data. If you work in or with the EU or UK, data protection law (GDPR and the UK GDPR) applies to how you store and use contacts, including for mailings. Record where each contact came from and their communication preferences, and make it easy to unsubscribe. Take advice if you are unsure.
Link contacts to castings and contracts
The database becomes powerful when it is connected to your work. Every casting should link to the person and organisation it came from; every contract to the presenter. Then you can see, for any house, every inquiry, proposal and engagement you have had with them. In ArtistHub, contacts, producers and orchestras are linked to castings, contracts and the calendar (castings workflow).
Use the opera database for research
Alongside your own contacts, ArtistHub includes an opera database that agents can use when researching repertoire and productions. Combine it with your presenter records to plan pitches (how to pitch singers).
Keep it clean
- Assign an owner for each organisation.
- Review key presenters at the start of each season.
- Update records when staff move; mailing bounces are a good signal.
- Merge duplicates regularly.
- Log every meeting and call, briefly.
Segment for mailings
Tags and fields let you send the right news to the right people: new mezzo-sopranos to houses that cast them, a pianist's new concerto to orchestras. ArtistHub's mailer works from your contacts (email campaigns for artist managers).
Why a CRM beats a spreadsheet here
A spreadsheet can list contacts. It cannot show the history of every casting with a house, link people across organisations, or send segmented mailings. That is the core argument for moving to a CRM (when to switch).
Fields that are worth the effort
| Field | Why it pays off |
|---|---|
| Organisation type | Segments mailings and reports |
| Voice types or instruments engaged | Targets pitches |
| Planning horizon | Times pitches correctly |
| Decision maker | Avoids writing to the wrong person |
| Last contact date | Spots relationships going cold |
| Engagements with our artists | Shows the value of the relationship |
| Source and consent | Supports data protection compliance |
Resist adding fields nobody will fill in. A short set of reliable fields beats a long set of empty ones.
Common mistakes
- One record per email address instead of per person, which creates duplicates when people change jobs.
- No organisation records, so departments and colleagues are not linked.
- Notes kept in personal email rather than on the contact.
- No owner, so nobody updates key presenters.
- Importing purchased lists without checking where they came from.
Sharing contacts across the team
A shared database only works if everyone uses it. Agree a few rules: log meetings and key calls in a line or two, update records when someone changes role, and never keep a private list of key presenters. When a staff member leaves, their relationships remain visible to the agency.
Using the database in daily work
Before any pitch or meeting, check the presenter's record: past engagements, open castings, last conversation, notes on preferences. After the conversation, add a short note. Over a season, the database becomes the agency's memory, and new staff can get up to speed quickly by reading it.
Measuring its value
A good test is how quickly you can answer: which presenters have engaged our mezzos in the past three seasons; who is the current casting contact at a given house; which orchestras have we not contacted this season. If those answers take seconds, the database is doing its job.
FAQ
Where can I find opera house contacts?
Start with presenters' own websites and season announcements, and industry associations such as Opera Europa, then enrich with your own conversations.
Do I need consent to email presenters?
Data protection rules depend on your jurisdiction. In the EU and UK, GDPR applies; take advice and keep records of where contacts came from.
Run your roster in ArtistHub
ArtistHub is a CRM built for classical and opera artist management: castings, contracts, the season calendar, logistics, invoices and the opera database in one place.