The prodigy behind Napa’s Festival del Sole

Barrett Wissman is all about the perfect pairing. As the co-founder of Napa’s Festival del Sole, he brings world-class musicians and performers and juxtaposes them with world-class experiences with wine and food. At age 11, he paired up with major symphony orchestras as a piano virtuoso. At Yale he studied a pair of subjects, economics and political science, then collected a pair of advanced degrees in music. He embarked upon a high-profile career on Wall Street before decamping to Los Angeles to immerse himself in the entertainment industry. He acquired a majority stake in IMG Artists, whose roster includes Joshua Bell, Renee Fleming, the Bolshoi Ballet, Audra McDonald and Itzhak Perlman, and became its chairman. A decade ago, Barrett Wissman teamed up with Richard Walker to found Napa Valley’s Festival del Sole, a midsummer celebration of music, dance, performance, improvisation, fine wine and cuisine — what he calls “the art of life.”