We recently connected with Kathy Olsen and have shared our conversation below.

Kathy, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. We’d love to go back in time and hear the story of how you came up with the name of your brand?

In 2005 when I began Encompass Arts, my mission was to “encompass” arts. In 2001 I was fortunate enough to collaborate with Baz Lurhmann on ‘La Boheme On Broadway.” I played for auditions for the show, was involved in casting and coached the singers in San Francisco, LA and finally on Broadway in New York. “La Boheme” brought together my two great theatrical loves, opera and Broadway. I made lasting relationships with this show. I now represent five people that were in the Boheme production with me on Broadway.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I began in New York by playing for voice lessons at the Juilliard School of Music. This job made it possible to establish life long connections with opera singers. One of the opera singers I met early in my career was Anthony Laciura. Anthony sang over 800 performances at the MET. When Anthony’s career morphed into directing, he asked me to represent him as a director. During this period, Martin Scorsese called Anthony in to audition for the series, “Boardwalk Empire.” Anthony was hired as a series regular. He portrayed
“Eddy Kessler” butler to star, Steve Buscemi. This HBO series was my first foray into representing actors for film-tv. I met many of the wonderful people at HBO during Anthony’s time on “Boardwalk.” We now represent 160 actors for film-tv.
The Broadway portion of Encompass Arts has developed over time. I knew the people at Telsey from our work together on “Boheme.” The other offices have also been so kind and welcoming to me, my staff and our talent.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

As I said earlier, I began as an opera coach/pianist in New York. An opera coach teaches music, language and style. We are also “in the trenches” with the artists for auditions. I recommended/suggested artists to companies long before I became an artist manager. The transition from collaborative pianist to artist manager was a logical one for me. The thrill of helping someone get a job is intoxicating. This season I was able to call one of our artists and say, “You just booked your Broadway debut.” There is no better feeling on earth. The hardest part of the transition for me were the “lean years” at the beginning. I knew I could make a living doing this, it took a while.

How did you build your audience on social media?

I am a huge advocate of social media. My Encompass Arts instagram is chocked full of performance photos of the artists. I have nearly 10,000 followers on Linkedin and nearly 5000 followers on Facebook. Our artists have actually booked engagements from Facebook.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.encompassarts.com
• Instagram: www.encompassarts.com
• Facebook: Encompass-Arts
• Linkedin: Encompass Arts, LLC
• Twitter: @encompassarts
• Youtube: Encompass Arts

Image Credits
Anthony Laciura, Ricky Gervais, Jennifer Olsen (Artist Manager) Stephen Powell, Steven He