OBITUARY: Mark Bonello
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Your support makes all the difference.As an established concert agent for singers and instrumentalists Mark Bonello often chauffeured his artists to their engagements. This was typical of his fastidious concern for his artists; and it was in keeping with his debonair style that in the rear window of his grey Bentley he had affixed a sign which read: "Please drive carefully - Diva on board."
Bonello acted as friend and counsellor to his clients and took a discerning interest in the development of their careers. After working for four years as associate director of a musical management, Gilder Bonello, he set up, at 30, his own agency. Eightyears later he had come to represent such celebrated singers as Rita Hunter, Mariana Nicolescu, Francoise Pollet and Faye Robinson and virtuosos such as the pianist Paul Badura-Skoda.
Born in London in 1956, Bonello attended St Joseph's College, Beulah Hill, and Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, where he studied modern languages. During a break for foreign travel he attended a music course in Vienna which fired in him a passion for grand opera. After working briefly as a tour guide in 1982 he went into the management of musical artists, a job which perfectly matched his own deepest interests - music, vivid personalities, and foreign languages.
Besides his work of representation Bonello acted as a promoter of musical events and galas. These included Fanfare for a New World, in Liverpool, the Royal Concert at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh, and a gala concert for Montserrat Caballe at the Royal Festival Hall (all in 1992), and Jose Carreras at Drury Lane in 1991. He had a pleasing tenor himself and had sung with the Whitehall Choir and the LSO Chorus.
Bonello enjoyed entertaining in his cavernous flat in Westminster and was a frequent presence at the opera and in London concert halls. His beaming expression was an engaging feature of London's musical scene.
Derek Granger Mark Bonello, concert agent: born London 23 August 1956; died London 25 January 1995.
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