Ian Smallbone has earned a reputation for the successful development and delivery of cultural events and orchestral projects around the world for more than three decades. He spent 25 years managing projects for the classical agency IMG Artists, working with many of the world’s major orchestras from Philadelphia, New York, Tokyo and Beijing, as well as the great historic European orchestras of St Petersburg, Moscow, London, Munich, Milan and Leipzig, among others. His early experience touring orchestras worldwide led to more ground-breaking opportunities, starting with leading the team that planned and launched the multinational orchestra resident at Kuala Lumpur’s Petronas Twin Towers, the Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and its concert hall Dewan Filharmonik Petronas in 1998, while also developing an extensive touring market for IMG Artists’ clients across the Asia-Pacific region.

On his return to Europe in 2001, a partnership Ian established with the acoustic design firm Artec led to operational planning consultancies for clients such as the West Kowloon Cultural District in Hong Kong, The Music Centre in Wroclaw and the Ministry of Culture and Communications in Montreal, Quebec. He undertook consultancies for cultural clients such as the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Mumbai and the education department of the City of Basel, as well as the development and launch of the Canton International Summer Music Academy 2005-2007 in collaboration with the Beijing Music Festival Foundation.

During those years Ian also delivered a number of cultural consultancies and touring projects for multinational corporations including Swire Group, UBS (Verbier Festival Orchestra), State Street, Credit Suisse, Statoil and Philips.

From 2008-2010 Ian led the IMG Artists production team that staged the award-winning Singapore Sun Festival in partnership with the Singapore Tourism Board, a multi-disciplinary lifestyle festival with music at its core; the Abu Dhabi Festival from 2008-2012, a celebration of music and international dialogue presented by the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation, the wine and culture festival Divino Tuscany in Florence, Italy from 2011-2012, and the Tuscan Sun Festival in 2011-2012, IMG’s original lifestyle festival of classical music, art and cuisine.

In 2013 Ian set up the event management and production company Smallbone & Lucifero Ltd with his wife and business partner Eleonora Lucifero, organizing international orchestral projects, consulting on new cultural facilities and developing a number of multi-disciplinary and luxury events for private clients.  In 2018 he was invited to lead the creation of the Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra, the first bilateral orchestra of its kind, bringing together the finest young musicians from the major British and Russian conservatoires, performing to great acclaim in both countries before Covid and then conflict in Ukraine brought its activities to an end.  It is a source of great pride to be joining artistic director Alexandros Kapelis and a team of professional colleagues to bring Epicenter Venice to life in the immeasurably beautiful context of Venice’s historic landmarks.