21C celebrates 25 years of business
Glenn Petry, Jessica Lustig, and Albert Imperato in 2025 (photo: Channa Photography)
(May 2025) — 21C Media Group has now been in business for 25 years. To mark this milestone, founding partners Jessica Lustig, Albert Imperato, and Glenn Petry take the opportunity to look back at their beginnings and how far they have come, with an eye on the road ahead. As dedicated to the arts and their clients as when they set out, and grateful for the relationships they’ve forged with media colleagues along the way, they continue to chart the course for a promising and productive future.
When they first founded 21C in 2000, the three partners each came to the venture with a wealth of experience in classical music. In the late 1980s, Jessica had started out at Columbia Artists Management (CAMI) before running BMG’s Classical Record Club and founding her own composers management company, while Albert and Glenn had begun their careers at the same publishing house, where they bonded over their shared love of jazz and classical music. Albert recalls:
“We’ve been best friends ever since. Listening to music with friends and hosting music parties was a big part of our social life. We were together at the 1986 Mahler 2 concert by Bernstein and the New York Philharmonic that prompted me to send my resume to Deutsche Grammophon.”
As a result of that submission, Albert went on to specialize in sales, marketing, and publicity at PolyGram/Universal Classics, managing Deutsche Grammophon’s U.S. label operations and overseeing artists and projects for Decca and Philips Classics. During that time, he got to know Jessica at BMG, and, when Glenn returned from touring with his experimental rock band, he joined Albert at Universal as a freelance publicist and special projects manager.
Glenn Petry, Jessica Lustig, and Albert Imperato in 2010 (photo: courtesy of 21C Media Group)
In the late 1990s, as the CD boom waned and digital technology began to remold the industry, the three recognized the need to evolve their careers. Together they developed ideas for a new company devoted to all facets of classical music. Gradually their vision took shape. The company would offer media relations services, consulting, and innovative promotional events, as well as embracing the burgeoning internet era by helping artists manage their online presence. 21C would serve as a connecting hub for artists, managers, labels, and media, while also helping to grow the audience for classical music. Jessica explains:
“From the beginning, one of our main goals was to make classical music more present in everyday life and foster connections for artists and clients throughout the industry. The concept of storytelling to attract new audiences and music lovers from other genres was always a part of 21C.”
Naming their company for the new millennium, Jessica, Albert, Glenn, and original co-founder Dan Lerner launched 21C Media Group on January 12, 2000. The early days weren’t always glamorous. Without their own office, the partners would meet in hotel lobbies or at each other’s homes; at one point, Albert and Jessica even briefly posed as a couple to run the growing company from a residential building. But 21C had already begun to make its mark. One of its earliest projects was the 20/21 Club, a series presented in collaboration with DG/Universal, combining talks with live performance at Columbia University’s Miller Theatre. The series’ second event offered an immersion in Shostakovich with the Emerson Quartet. Playing to a packed house of 550 students, and inspiring a memorable piece in The New York Times, it was this notice that first put 21C on the map.
Albert Imperato and Leif Ove Andsnes, who – like Alan Gilbert, Daniel Hope, and the Bard Music Festival – is among those clients who have been with the company for more than 20 years (photo: courtesy of 21C Media Group)
Since then, the company has represented more than 500 clients, including more than 300 musicians and creative artists, 50 orchestras, 25 festivals, 20 educational institutions, 15 opera companies, 15 tech startups, and a host of recording, publishing, and management companies. As well as inspiring stories across all major media, many of these clients have been recognized with Grammys, Tonys, Emmys, Oscars, and numerous international awards.
Seeing classical music as part of the wider cultural landscape, 21C embraces the chance to work with artists who resist traditional boundaries. Glenn says:
“From the outset, a guiding principle for 21C has been to broaden the reach of classical music, to make it more inclusive and accessible to a wider audience – perhaps even with the goal of breaking down genre silos, positioning classical music right in there with other great American genres such as jazz, theater, rock, and pop. What’s been fascinating and so rewarding is that some of the greatest artists of these other genres have found their way to us. In the end it’s about expanding the audience, joy, and community that comes from sharing what is really just wonderful, often sublime, music.”
Those artists from other genres include such American icons as multi-Grammy and Oscar Award-winning pianist, singer, and composer Jon Batiste; 20-time Grammy-winning guitarist and composer Pat Metheny; and Emmy, Grammy, and six-time Tony Award-winning singer and actor Audra McDonald, with whom 21C has worked for the past 14 years.
“Für Elise-Batiste” from Beethoven Blues, the first installment in Jon Batiste’s new solo piano series, which showcases his improvisatory transformations of some of Beethoven’s most iconic works.
Other less typical projects include a variety of innovative tech partnerships. In collaboration with Google, 21C created and promoted the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which revolutionized the online audition process and brought together musicians from more than 30 countries for final concerts at Carnegie Hall and the Sydney Opera House, and which received 33 million views from nearly 200 countries: the largest audience to that point for any live webcast. Subsequently, when concert halls went dark during the pandemic, 21C helped Marin Alsop spearhead the “Global Ode to Joy,” a crowd-sourced video project to celebrate Beethoven’s 250th anniversary. With YouTube, Google Arts & Culture, and leading arts organizations, Alsop invited the global community to share the Ninth Symphony’s call for tolerance, unity, and joy in videos tagged #GlobalOdeToJoy, culminating in a star-studded Carnegie Hall webcast and grand video finale.
The GOTJ highlight reel is set to a performance of the “Ode to Joy” featuring Alsop, the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony, and the international Stay At Home Choir.
21C has also taken a number of opportunities to collaborate on cultural diplomacy. By working with the Global Fund to mount and promote a touring production of La bohème, the company helped raise awareness of the continued threat and spread of tuberculosis in South Africa. With the World Economic Forum (WEF), 21C undertook multiple collaborations to address the role of the arts in tackling global challenges, including a high-profile 40th anniversary concert for WEF Young Global Leaders at Carnegie Hall. Since 2013, 21C has partnered with the Afghanistan National Institute of Music (ANIM) to protect the future of Afghan music by ensuring political refuge and ongoing educational and artistic opportunities for its young students, half of whom are girls. After the latest Taliban takeover, Jessica helped bring about the rescue of 273 ANIM students, faculty, staff, and immediate family members from Kabul in the largest airlift of Afghan civilians after the US withdrawal in 2021. Since the school’s reestablishment in Lisbon, Portugal, the students have performed at Carnegie Hall, the Kennedy Center, London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall, and other top venues, drawing widespread international coverage. Click here to see the trailer for Last Song from Kabul, an Emmy-nominated documentary about ANIM.
ANIM’s Afghan Youth Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in 2024 (photo: courtesy of ANIM)
Jessica says:
“All our clients have different needs, and I enjoy figuring out how we can serve them and bring their ideas to life. We share a deep-seated belief that art brings people together who may otherwise never interact. Music as cultural diplomacy creates a safe space and common ground.”
Over the past 25 years, technology has completely transformed the world of publicity. 21C understood this early and was one of the first classical music agencies to offer digital services. By collaborating with major record labels and tech startups, presenting performances in non-traditional spaces, and developing innovative projects tailored to individual artists’ needs, the company has managed to help its clients navigate and thrive in today’s constantly changing media landscape. Amanda MacBlane, 21C’s Director, Digital and Creative, explains:
“From building dozens of artist websites and launching hundreds of social media channels to embracing digital-first media and partnering with leading tech companies on artistic projects, the company has proven time and again that what happens online has major implications in the real world.”
Thus, explosive social media growth led to increased bookings for the Bay Area-based vocal group Chanticleer. Yo-Yo Ma’s “Songs of Comfort” series brought joy to millions during the pandemic and earned the cellist a spot on The Time 100 list in addition to numerous other media placements and speaking engagements. And a robust archival website created for conductor, composer and educator Michael Tilson Thomas helped anchor the legacy of one of our most visionary artists amidst an increasingly ephemeral culture. Amanda adds:
“As we look toward a rapidly evolving future, 21C is committed to finding opportunities for artists in short-form video, streaming, virtual reality, and artificial intelligence.”
Recognized as “a cutting-edge agency that helps artists develop all aspects of their careers” by The New York Times, the company was chosen as one of the five “Top PR Firms for the Performing Arts” in the Observer’s 2024 PR Power List; named one of Business Insider’s “15 top boutique PR firms”; recognized with Jim Henson and “Webby” Awards for spearheading the YouTube Symphony Orchestra; and chosen by Forbes as the only performing arts firm in “America’s Best PR Agencies 2021.” As the 21C team has grown, former employees, interns, and fellows have gone on to represent such eminent organizations as Carnegie Hall, the Ravinia Festival, Spotify, and Warner Music. Now in a position to give something back, Jessica, Albert, Glenn, and Amanda have served as speakers, panelists, presenters, and jurors at conferences mounted by Classical:NEXT, Opera America, the League of American Orchestras, and other industry leaders. When they first founded the company, the partners could never have foreseen such developments. Now, 25 years on, they are excited to see what’s next.
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