G. F. Handel, Entrepreneur

Handel’s Messiah is perhaps the best-known piece of Christmas choral music, and one of the great contributions to Western culture. Less is known about Handel’s entrepreneurial endeavors, however. The Acton Institute PowerBlog offers some provocative discussion, including this quote from Handel scholar Tim Slover:

The Royal Family, fellow Germans from the same region of Hanover, were staunch supporters of his work, but this did not translate into financial security for Handel, as the Crown only sporadically underwrote his opera seasons. When weddings or other occasions called for it, the Hanovers commissioned music from him, but this was never enough to live on, and, anyway, Handel was no court composer. By temperament he was an entrepreneur. He spent several months of every year striking business deals with theater owners, auditioning and hiring singers, and rehearsing and performing instrumental music, operas, and oratorios. His fortunes rose or fell with the public’s reception of his music, and there were lean times as well as prosperous ones.

For more on entrepreneurship in the creative arts, see Art Entrepreneurship, edited by Mikael Scherdin and Ivo Zander. I also highly recommend Paul Cantor’s fantastic lecture series on “Commerce and Culture.”

The Entrepreneurs’ Princess

Did you catch John Berlau’s piece in Thursday’s WSJ? “Some have asked if Kate will be a ‘people’s princess,’ in the mold of Prince William’s late mother, Diana. But Kate and her family actually embody a noble, if relatively modern, tradition of their own, a tradition of bettering oneself and one’s family while improving the lot of society at the same time. The tradition that Kate and her parents and siblings embody so well is that of entrepreneurship.” The Middletons, of course, are entrepreneurs, founders of Party Pieces, a leading online provider of kids’ party stuff. Does the tale sound familiar?

When Kate was five, her mother, like many aspiring entrepreneurs, saw a niche that could be filled to help others in her situation. As described on the website of the family business, PartyPieces.co.uk, “Carole Middleton founded Party Pieces in 1987 after finding it difficult to source fun, simple party products for her children’s parties.”

Somewhat like successful American firms from Microsoft to Google that had their beginnings in residential garages, Party Pieces started out in a shed in the Middletons’ garden. There, mail orders were taken for boxes with pre-selected party favors to fit a certain theme.

The Middleton’s business really took off with the advent of the Internet, and today, one can go on the web site and order plates, cups and napkins themed from Barbie to the Transformers. If one of the royal duties is to ensure the happiness of subjects, Kate’s family has given her a head start by bringing joy to so many British parents and children.

Welcome to entrepreneurship@McQuinn

This is the new blog of the University of Missouri’s McQuinn Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.