The Agency was founded by Michael Staringer in 1992. Our home is Vienna, Austria, long known for its musical tradition. Musical Theater has been our speciality right from the beginning, as Michael has long been interested in and has a great love for it. We have clients in theaters all over Europe as well as Broadway and London‘s West End. Some of our clients have made the break into movies both European and International.
We work cooperatively with top agencies in New York and London. Michael travels extensively in the US and Europe, checking out the latest productions, meeting producers, composers, directors and of course seeing the clients in their shows.
The composer, Anton Diabelli, was born on September 5, 1781 in Mattsee, Austria (near Salzburg … „Edelweiss, Edelweiss“). He is probably best known for the waltz on which Beethoven based his composition the Diabelli Variations. In addition to composing, he taught piano and guitar and later became a very successful music publisher. Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert were leading composers of the day who had compositions in the Diabelli „catalogue“
Is it because Anton Diabelli lived and died in Vienna, or that his waltz was used by Beethoven for a set of variations? Actually the reason is not so romantic or esoteric!
The first office was in Diabelligasse (Diabelli Street) in Vienna. During his travels in America, Michael (always one to get the most mileage out of the amount of work done) decided to make Diabelli Management the business residing at Diabelligasse. This way he avoided having to spell yet another difficult street name (Dostoijewskygasse IS just a few blocks away!)
Actually it was Diabelli Productions until our first New York auditions when we were told a production company could not hold auditions. The office has since moved, but the name remains. Michael really does like Diabelli‘s music as well as the sound of the name.