Canadian Music Agencies Paquin and Preste Partner In New Deal

A new “strategic partnership” between Quebec-based Preste Spectacles & Tours and Winnipeg-based Paquin Artists Agency promises to enhance the former’s client roster in English Canada and offers Paquin a stronger foothold in the francophone market, plus its first office in Montreal.

Since 1995, Preste founder & President Louis Carrière has built a sizeable empire in the francophone province as a show producer and talent agency chief with acts that include Lysandre, Harry Manx, Half Moon Run, Voivod and Michel Pagliaro as clients.

The Paquin Agency has about 200 clients on its roster, including Bryan Adams, Jann Arden, David Foster, Burton Cummings, Serena Ryder, The Sheepdogs, Whitehorse, Johnny Reid, Tom Cochrane and Buffy Sainte-Marie.

As an aggressive vertical in the agency business, founder Gilles Paquin expanded his business during the pandemic with a wildly successful exhibitions division that included shows such as Beyond van Gogh, Beyond Monet, and Marvel S.T.A.T.I.O.N, all of which have toured the world.

Today, the company operates from offices in Toronto, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Nashville and now Montreal. The integrated entertainment firm has also struck several new partnerships, including The Loft Entertainment – a music management and film / TV content company co-founded by Canadian entertainment mogul Randy Lennox. [The Loft is also an agency partner of Billboard Canada.]

Before launching Preste in 1999, Carrière was the bass player in the punk band Tuniq, a short-term dalliance that resulted in one album released through the artist cooperative imprint, En Guard Records.