Herbert Fox; Manager for Classical Music and Theater Performers

Herbert O. Fox, former senior vice president of Columbia Artists Management Inc., the famed classical music management organization, and an official for the firm for 54 years, died Thursday at his home in Irvine. He was 82.

Fox was one of the West Coast’s most influential managers--and impresarios--for classical music artists, jazz and Broadway performers and dancers. He started at CAMI in New York City in 1939 after graduating from Union College in Schenectady, N.Y., and was sent west in the early 1960s to head and expand the company’s office in Los Angeles.

Fox served as chairman of Columbia Artists Festivals and managing director of Community Concerts, CAMI’s 1,000-city concert network. He also founded the Broadway Theatre Alliance to put musicals and plays on tour. Both the Community Concerts division and the Broadway Theater Alliance, now called Columbia Artists Theatricals, remain in operation.

Under his leadership, Columbia Artists Festivals packaged and toured a wide range of talent, including such attractions as “The Great Gershwin Concert,” with Mel Torme, Leslie Uggams and Peter Nero; jazz greats George Shearing, Joe Williams and Dizzy Gillespie; and the Ballet Folklorico Nacional de Mexico.

Fox managed the careers of the Southern California guitar-playing family the Romeros, opera singer George London and Bach specialist pianist Rosalyn Tureck. He was also part of the early careers of tenor Mario Lanza and blues legend Leadbelly.

Among the early attractions toured by Fox’s Broadway Theatre Alliance were “Diary of Anne Frank,” “No Time for Sergeants,” “Auntie Mame” and “Fiorello.” In recent years, that division sponsored tours that included “Stomp,” “Grease” and “Cats.”

Celin Romero, one of the original members of the Romero guitar quartet, said Fox played an important role in expanding the group’s career, including combining it with symphony orchestras.

“I remember his great imagination, and his energy,” Romero said from his home in Del Mar. “One day we visited him at his office and he told us he had got us an engagement with the Chicago Symphony.

“ ‘But, Herb,’ I said, ‘we have no repertory to play with orchestra.’ He thought a while, then suggested we transcribe some violin concertos by Vivaldi, and that was the beginning of our orchestral engagements.

“Herb took an interest in everything we did, choosing repertory, helping us write the first letter to [composer] Joaquin Rodrigo, asking him to compose for us.”

Fox retired from CAMI in 1993. He and his wife, Jean, moved to Orange County, where he served on the boards of directors of Opera Pacific, the Orange County High School of the Performing Arts and the William Hall Chorale.

And Fox never quite left the impresario game behind. As chairman of Opera Pacific’s “Prologues” series, he coaxed such operatic personalities as Marilyn Horne and Beverly Sills to speak at fund-raising luncheons. The next Prologue, Dec. 3, when sopranos Anna Moffo and Patrice Munsel reminisce about their careers, will be dedicated to his memory.

Fox is survived by his wife, two daughters, three grandchildren and two great-grandchildren. There will be no service. The family has requested donations in the name of Herbert O. Fox to Union College, Schenectady, N.Y.; the George London Foundation, New York City; and Opera Pacific, Costa Mesa.