Herbert Barrett (May 31, 1910 – November 5, 2007) was an influential talent manager and publicist in the classical music world during the second half of the twentieth century.
[1] Born in New York City, Barrett was the son of Mollie Pike, a seamstress in the fur industry.
He began working as a publicist in 1933 and over the next seven years built an impressive roster of artists and artistic organizations that included clarinetist and bandleader Benny Goodman, dancer Martha Graham, impresario Sol Hurok, the Brooklyn Academy of Music, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Orquesta Sinfónica del Estado de México.
Two of his most important clients were baritone Sherrill Milnes and pianist John Browning, and Barrett is credited as helping them to build successful careers.
Barrett's firm quickly garnered a high reputation in the classical music world and over the next half century he managed hundreds of successful artists, including the Martha Argerich, the Bach Aria Group, Wilhelm Backhaus, Grace Bumbry, Carlos Chávez, John Houseman and The Acting Company, Stuart Gordon's Organic Theater Company, Benno Moiseiwitsch, the Negro Ensemble Company, Guiomar Novaes, Ruggiero Ricci, Kenneth Schermerhorn, Ravi Shankar, Billy Taylor, Michael Tippett, and Tatiana Troyanos to name just a few.