Alexander Buhr has been appointed managing director of famed London-based recording label, Decca Classics, succeeding Paul Moseley who moves up to senior vice president of strategic content and partnerships, Global Classics.
Buhr, who holds a PhD in Musicology from the University of Hamburg as well as an MBA (SMI Steinbeiss, SDA Bocconi, and Stern School of Business), launched Mercury Classics in 2012 and within four years had turned the label into one of the most innovative and distinctive classical labels in the world. He will continue to oversee Mercury, which will be brought into the Decca Classics fold.
Buhr spent 10 years in Deutsche Grammophon’s International Marketing and A&R teams, where he built the profiles of artists including Lang Lang, Krystian Zimerman, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Elina Garanča, Magdalena Kožená, Gustavo Dudamel, Hilary Hahn and Lisa Batiashvili.
At Mercury he was integral to the label’s career-focussed strategy for artists, building the profiles of the likes of Miloš Karadaglić, Yundi, Tori Amos, Olafur Arnalds, Andreas Ottensamer and Mari and Hakon Samuelsen.
‘It is an honour to take the helm of this outstanding label and I am excited to lead its exceptional team,’ said Buhr. ‘I have been inspired by Decca’s extraordinary artists as long as I can remember, I can’t wait to collaborate closely with them to further develop their remarkable careers, to bring new artists on board and to explore, with them, the incredible opportunities that lie ahead.’
Paul Moseley’s newly created international role will see him work across all Universal Music’s classical labels worldwide, including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca Classics and Mercury Classics, for which he will oversee the strategic management of the company’s classical recording and audio-visual assets.
‘I am hugely excited at the opportunity to develop my passion for content across all our wonderful labels,’ said the Decca veteran. ‘I look forward to working with both our creators and our curators of content as we find ways to satisfy and anticipate the needs of our consumers and partners better and faster.’
A former Decca UK Label head and international vice president of marketing, in 2005 Moseley launched the innovative Onyx Classics label before returning to Decca Classics in 2009 as general manager of A&R and then managing director. Under his leadership, Decca Classics was named Gramophone Label of the Year in 2013.
He has worked with a host of classical music’s best-known artists including Daniel Barenboim, Cecilia Bartoli, Renée Fleming, Luciano Pavarotti and Georg Solti.