About Passionato

James Glicker has worked in the music industry for twenty years. When James first conceived of the idea Passionato, he had just completed a two year term as President/CEO of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra where he was responsible for setting the orchestra's artistic and business goals, including opening the Music Centre at Strathmore, a 2000-seat concert hall and multi-disciplinary education facility near Washington DC in 2005. His parting shot in 2005 was to appoint Marin Alsop as Music Director, the first woman to be a music director of a major American orchestra.

James was previously President of MusicNow (now part of Napster), where he set up one of the world's first subscription services, (the other three being Rhapsody, Napster and MusicNet). He also secured the first ever 99 cents label deal with Warner in 2001, before Apple developed iTunes.

Prior to MusicNow, James was head of worldwide marketing at BMG Classics (now trading as RCA Victor), where he was charged with increasing sales of classical music across 60 countries worldwide. He was promoted to President of BMG Australia after four years, where he was responsible for sales promotion across not just classical music but also country, rock, hip hop, and pop.

James has held a number of interesting positions outside the music industry, for companies such as Geocities, the world's first online community, where he was part of a team that took GeoCities public and sold it to Yahoo for $4.3 billion. He has also been CEO of his own yoghurt company, Whitney, written speeches for the Chrysler Corporation and, as a Venture Partner at Venture Strategy (a VC fund based in San Francisco), sat on the boards of two AIM-listed companies in the UK, Gameplay and Systems Union.

James has a BA from Yale in English (minored in music) and an MBA from the University of Michigan. He took piano lessons from an early age, but got much of his musical inspiration from his uncle, Joe Mack, a respected studio bass player. 'Uncle Joe' played on a number of recordings including Bob Dylan's album 'Highway 66 Revisited', plus with the group 'The Archies', as well as on other recordings with The Supremes and Frank Sinatra. When James was sixteen he showed up late at a Guarneri String Quartet concert in Nantucket, and was allowed to sit on the floor just a few feet from the group, who after playing a Beethoven string quartet, played Bartok. James was blown away and from that moment on classical was central to his musical tastes. However, while he studied classical music at Yale (including advanced theory with Joan Panneti and a composition tutorial with David Mott), he still found time to participate in Yale's singing group scene, ultimately becoming Pitchpipe (Musical Director) of the world famous Yale Whiffenpoofs.

Jeremy has spent over twenty years in the classical record industry, something of a pleasant surprise in fact, having only started out working as a Christmas Temp in HMV’s famous flagship Oxford Street store in London as a means of paying the rent until something better came along.

Before he knew it a few weeks turned into more than a decade at the sharp-end of retail, the temp ending up as manager of the Classical Department. During his years as manager, Jeremy introduced radical new merchandising techniques that won HMV’s Merchandiser of the Year Award; and also became closely involved in the design and planning of the new flagship department that opened in 2001.

He was then invited to take over the running of Britannia Music's Classical Club, one of the largest CD & DVD mail order clubs in Europe, where he expanded the range enormously, introduced many new labels, and developed several exclusive boxed sets with major labels including DG and Decca. He also expanded Britannia's links with Gramophone magazine, culminating in the sponsorship of the 2003 Gramophone Awards.

At Passionato, Jeremy is responsible for the website content and design, including all commercial activity on the site related to Passionato's extensive range of recordings. A major part of his role is the development of the extensive databases necessary to provide the detailed information available to Passionato customers. He also manages the relationships with all the record labels and other repertoire suppliers, and is responsible for the acquisition of new labels.

Jeremy's interest in Classical music was kindled at an early age by regular visits to see the Hallé Orchestra, although alas only starting just after Glorious John had passed-on. An occupational hazard in CD retail, Jeremy's musical interests are somewhat eclectic, ranging from Early and Baroque to the Twentieth Century, though he has a particular passion for British music, piano and chamber music, film music, and unearthing gems from the lesser-known masters of the repertoire.

Jeremy has a B.A. in Modern History from The Queen's College, Oxford.

Greg Barbero has twenty-five years experience in the classical music business. Seeking a job in a bookstore and being turned down, he lied about his classical music experience to get a job as a clerk in Barnes and Noble’s Downtown Boston location. Finding the situation very much to his liking, and the timing fortuitous – he set up the store’s first shipment of compact discs on his very first day – he eventually ran the chain’s music operations before joining PolyGram in 1988.

In his 11 years at PolyGram, he was the first marketing director for newly formed PolyGram Classics and Jazz, and oversaw major marketing initiatives. He marketed the launch of Verve as a fully functioning label and the recording career development of artists like Cecilia Bartoli, Renee Fleming, Joshua Bell, Gil Shaham, and the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as well as PolyGram’s stellar roster of established superstars. In 1994, Greg was named the US label manager of London Records, where he was key to broadening the company’s repertoire mix into Broadway, classical crossover and original soundtracks.

Greg left PolyGram in 1998 to help lead Treble V Music, a Utah based company that created television and audio projects for specialized markets. In 2000, he helped BMG create the RCA Victor Group, a combination of BMG’s classical, jazz, Windham Hill and world music imprints.

In 2003, Danny Goldberg of Artemis Records asked Greg to oversee the purchase of the Vanguard Classics record label. By early 2004 Vanguard’s large catalog was rejuvenated with new promotional lines and international distribution. Artists Matt Haimovitz, Gil Shaham and the Boston Pops joined the label, and pianist Leon Fleisher capped his performance comeback with his best-selling recording “Two Hands”.

Greg is married and has a son. He graduated from Emerson College in 1984 with a degree in philosophy.

David’s first point of contact with classical music was a recording of that old warhorse, the Ride of the Valkyries with the LPO conducted by Karl Anton Richenbacher. From there he moved onto the entire Ring cycle which, amazingly, failed to be put off classical music - rather the opposite in fact.

David has been working in the classical music industry since the mid 1990s, when he started as a lowly Sales Assistant at the Classical Department in HMV Oxford Circus, London. After six interesting years of recommending (and balancing) CDs and in the meantime being promoted to ordering people about, he joined Jeremy Wilkinson at Britannia in 2002 to work on the content for the classical magazine and website.

After two years out of the industry – and moving to New Zealand in the meantime where he has discovered the rich artistic legacy of Douglas Lilburn – he is back in the job he likes best, writing about music. David’s interests are in the early twentieth century, particularly the work of the Second Viennese composers, opera and operetta (to add a little levity). He claims to be able to whistle a few Schoenberg tunes - but don’t ask him which pieces of music they come from.

Terry has worked in the classical record industry for more than twenty years. He joined Passionato after 11 years as a Classical and Specialist Music Buyer for Virgin Megastores and Zavvi. During his time with these companies, he devised many successful music campaigns and improved back catalogue ranges in these genres.

Before joining Virgin, Terry spent four years working as a Buyer with the MVC retail chain, following stints in Harrods’ Sound and Vision Department and two years as a Store Manager for Our Price. Throughout his time in music retail, Terry has been closely involved with Classical music.

At Passionato, Terry assists in updating content on the site, liaising and negotiating with record labels and suppliers and working with copyright protection agencies across the various international territories of Passionato’s business. 

Terry became interested in Classical Music at an early age when his school teacher devoted Friday afternoons to playing recordings such as Alfred Brendel’s Mozart Piano Concertos. A trip to the Wigmore hall as a boy put the seal on matters and a long voyage of discovery began. Terry’s tastes are very broad, encompassing many eras but he has particular interest in 20^th  Century British music, music of Scandinavia and Czech composers.

Terry has a B.A. History and Literature from Staffordshire University.

Dan joined Passionato after studying composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire, where he wrote a number of pieces ranging in style from "Chopinesque" piano sonatas and Irish folk music variations to jazz, funk and drum & bass tunes. Having taken up the cello and piano at the age of eight, Dan went on to lead the cello section in the award-winning Northamptonshire County Youth Orchestra, making regular appearances at the Royal Albert Hall, The Royal Festival Hall and the Birmingham Symphony Hall, and participating in tours of Finland and Italy. He is also a keen bass guitar player along with acoustic guitar, electric guitar, drum kit, cajon and djembe. He has been writing software and web applications since his schooldays and financed his college studies by working as a freelance Web developer.

Dan's role at Passionato is to maintain and develop the complex infrastructure of databases and website technology that deliver the Passionato store and to be a technical advisor to his colleagues. What he appreciates most of all about working at Passionato, he says, is a professional environment that allows him to listen to Bach keyboard suites while he works and to be involved in an industry which he loves.

Carmen Martínez – Special Marketing Assistant

A native of Spain, Carmen grew up in a family where Classical music has always been present and began attending concerts from an early age. Carmen’s playlist includes ‘Requiem’ by Mozart, ‘Ein Heldenleben’ by R. Strauss and every Symphony by Mahler.

Carmen has performed alongside internationally recognized musicians in Europe and USA. She has been part of many Symphonic and Chamber Orchestras, has attended numerous Music Festivals and has been a Violin instructor for more than five years.

She holds a Graduate Certificate in Business Fundamentals by the University of Baltimore, a Graduate Performance Diploma in Violin by the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University and a Double Bachelor’s Degree in Violin and Chamber Music by E.M.T. Music Conservatory of Oviedo (Spain)