Eleanor Hope was born in South Africa and studied in London. As a child she fell in love with the piano after hearing Gina Bachauer and Claudio Arrau. In 1975 she became the personal assistant to Yehudi Menuhin, soon became his general manager, and in 1980 artistic administrator of his festival in Gstaad, Switzerland. She has over 40 years of experience in concert promotion, artist and event management, and international orchestral touring.
She now lives in Vienna and is in demand as a lecturer on career management in the arts, and a regular juror of the International Johannes Brahms Competition. She has also judged Austria’s Gradus Ad Parnassum university competition, Vienna University’s “Rising Stars” competition, the Zhuhai Mozart Competition, Mozarteum University’s Ricci Competition and Sir Ian Stoutzker Prize, and the Classic Piano International Competition in Dubai.
She is a director of Interclassica Music Management, represents violinists Vadim Repin, Ziyu He and Jan Mráček, conductors James Judd, Carlo Tenan and Thomas Rösner, and is projects adviser to pianist Ivo Pogorelich. She spent five years as a Council Member of Salzburg Mozarteum University and is a former vice-president of the European Association of Artists’ Agents.
She is married to a singer and professor at the University of Music and the Performing Arts in Vienna, Benno Schollum, and has two sons, Jasper Hope, formerly CEO of Dubai Opera and London’s Royal Albert Hall, and violinist Daniel Hope.