EMI Classics
Parent company	EMI EMI The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...
Founded	1990
Chairman EMI Classics	David Kassler
COO	Amanda Cupples
A&R Vice President	Andrew Cornall
President Virgin Classics	Alain Lanceron
Distributed Labels	EMI Classics Virgin Classics Classics for Pleasure (UK) Angel Records Angel Records Angel Records is a record label belonging to EMI. It was formed in 1953 and specialised in classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score... Blue Note Label Group (USA)
Genre(s)	Classical Music
Country	UK
Websites	www.emiclassics.com www.emiclassics.co.uk (UK) www.emiclassics.de (DE) www.emivirginclassics.fr (FR) www.angelrecords.com (US)

EMI Classics is a record label

Record label

In the music industry, a record label is a brand and a trademark associated with the marketing of music recordings and music videos. Most commonly, a record label is the company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the production, manufacture, distribution, marketing and promotion,...

 of EMI

EMI

The EMI Group, also known as EMI Music or simply EMI, is a multinational music company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the fourth-largest business group and family of record labels in the recording industry and one of the "big four" record companies. EMI Group also has a major...

, formed in 1990 in order to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogs for internationally distributed classical music releases.

Classical recordings were formerly simultaneously released under combinations of Angel

Angel Records

Angel Records is a record label belonging to EMI. It was formed in 1953 and specialised in classical music, but included an occasional operetta or Broadway score...

, Seraphim

Seraphim Records

Seraphim Records is the sister label of Angel Records.-History:During the 1960s through the 1980s, it was Angel's low-price label; recordings that had originally been released on the Angel label were re-released at a bargain price on the Seraphim label...

, Odeon

Odeon Records

Odeon Records was a record label founded in 1903 by Max Straus and Heinrich Zuntz of the International Talking Machine Company in Berlin, Germany. It was named after a famous theatre in Paris, whose classical dome appears on the Odeon record label....

, Columbia

Columbia Graphophone Company

The Columbia Graphophone Company was one of the earliest gramophone companies in the United Kingdom. Under EMI, as Columbia Records, it became a very successful label in the 1950s and 1960s...

, His Master's Voice, and other labels, in part because competitors own these names in various countries. These have been moved under the EMI Classics umbrella to avoid the trademark

Trademark

A trademark, trade mark, or trade-mark is a distinctive sign or indicator used by an individual, business organization, or other legal entity to identify that the products or services to consumers with which the trademark appears originate from a unique source, and to distinguish its products or...

 problems. Releases created for distribution in specific countries are still distributed under the historical names, except for Columbia as EMI sold the Columbia name to Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment

Sony Music Entertainment ' is the second-largest global recorded music company of the "big four" record companies and is controlled by Sony Corporation of America, the United States subsidiary of Japan's Sony Corporation....

. The red logo harkens back to the Red Seal releases, introduced by EMI predecessor the Gramophone Company

Gramophone Company

The Gramophone Company, based in the United Kingdom, was one of the early recording companies, and was the parent organization for the famous "His Master's Voice" label...

 in 1902. So HMV classical releases had red labels.

EMI Classics also incorporates the Virgin Classics label.

Composers

• Thomas Adès
  Thomas Adès
  Thomas Adès is a British composer, pianist and conductor.-Biography:Adès studied piano with Paul Berkowitz and later composition with Robert Saxton at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, London...
  
  
• Craig Armstrong
• Howard Goodall
  Howard Goodall
  210px|thumb|Howard Goodall at St. John the Baptist Church in Devon, United Kingdom, May 2009Howard Lindsay Goodall CBE is a British composer of musicals, choral music and music for television...
  
  
• Karl Jenkins
  Karl Jenkins
  -Other works:*Adiemus: Live — live versions of Adiemus music*Palladio *Eloise *Imagined Oceans *The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace...
  
  
• Jon Lord
  Jon Lord
  Jonathan Douglas "Jon" Lord is an English composer, pianist and Hammond organ player.Jon Lord, also known as 'Hammond Lord', is a classically trained piano player. He is recognised for his Hammond organ blues-rock sound and for his pioneering work in fusing rock and classical or baroque forms...
  
  
• Sir Paul McCartney
  Paul McCartney
  Sir James Paul McCartney, MBE, Hon RAM, FRCM is an English musician, singer-songwriter and composer. Formerly of The Beatles and Wings , McCartney is listed in Guinness World Records as the "most successful musician and composer in popular music history", with 60 gold discs and sales of 100...
  
  
• Zbigniew Preisner
  Zbigniew Preisner
  Zbigniew Preisner is a Polish film score composer, best known for his work with film director Krzysztof Kieślowski.-Life:Zbigniew Preisner studied history and philosophy in Kraków. Never having received formal music lessons, he taught himself music by listening and transcribing parts from records....
  
  
• Mohammed Abdel Wahab
  Mohammed Abdel Wahab
  Mohammed Abdel Wahab , also transliterated Mohammed Abd el-Wahaab was a prominent 20th-century Arab Egyptian singer and composer...
  
  

Conductors

• Claudio Abbado
  Claudio Abbado
  Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
  
  
• Sir John Barbirolli
  John Barbirolli
  Sir John Barbirolli, CH was an English conductor and cellist. Born in London, of Italian and French parentage, he grew up in a family of professional musicians. His father and grandfather were violinists...
  
  
• Daniel Barenboim
  Daniel Barenboim
  Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....
  
  
• Sir Thomas Beecham
  Thomas Beecham
  Sir Thomas Beecham, 2nd Baronet CH was an English conductor and impresario best known for his association with the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He was also closely associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and Hallé orchestras...
  
  
• Sir Adrian Boult
  Adrian Boult
  Sir Adrian Cedric Boult CH was an English conductor. Brought up in a prosperous mercantile family he followed musical studies in England and at Leipzig, Germany, with early conducting work in London for the Royal Opera House and Sergei Diaghilev's ballet company. His first prominent post was...
  
  
• William Christie
  William Christie (musician)
  William Lincoln Christie is an American-born French conductor and harpsichordist. He is noted as a specialist in baroque repertoire and as the founder of the ensemble Les Arts Florissants....
  
  
• Alan Curtis
  Alan Curtis (harpsichordist)
  Alan Curtis is a noted American harpsichordist, musicologist, and conductor of baroque opera. After graduate studies at the University of Illinois , where he wrote his dissertation on the keyboard music of Sweelinck, he studied in Amsterdam with Gustav Leonhardt, with whom he subsequently recorded...
  
  
• Lawrence Foster
  Lawrence Foster
  Lawrence Foster is an American conductor.He became the conductor of the San Francisco Ballet at the age of 18, and served as Assistant Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Zubin Mehta...
  
  
• Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler
  Wilhelm Furtwängler was a German conductor and composer. He is widely considered to have been one of the greatest symphonic and operatic conductors of the 20th century. By the 1930s he had built a reputation as one of the leading conductors in Europe, and he was the leading conductor who remained...
  
  
• Carlo Maria Giulini
  Carlo Maria Giulini
  Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
  
  
• Emmanuelle Haïm
  Emmanuelle Haïm
  Emmanuelle Haïm is a French harpsichordist and conductor with a particular interest in early music and Baroque music....
  
  
• Bernard Haitink
  Bernard Haitink
  Bernard Johan Herman Haitink, CH, KBE is a Dutch conductor and violinist.- Early life :Haitink was born in Amsterdam, the son of Willem Haitink and Anna Haitink. He studied music at the conservatoire in Amsterdam...
  
  
• Vernon Handley
  Vernon Handley
  Vernon George "Tod" Handley CBE was a British conductor, known in particular for his support of British composers. He was born of a Welsh father and an Irish mother into a musical family in Enfield, London. He acquired the nickname "Tod" because his feet were turned in at his birth, which his...
  
  
• Daniel Harding
  Daniel Harding
  Daniel Harding is a British conductor.Harding studied trumpet at Chetham's School of Music and was a member of the National Youth Orchestra at age 13. At age 17, Harding assembled a group of musicians to perform Pierrot Lunaire of Arnold Schoenberg, and sent a tape of the performance to Simon...
  
  
• Richard Hickox
  Richard Hickox
  Richard Sidney Hickox CBE was an English conductor of choral, orchestral and operatic music.-Early life:Hickox was born in Stokenchurch in Buckinghamshire into a musical family...
  
  
• Mariss Jansons
  Mariss Jansons
  Mariss Ivars Georgs Jansons is a Latvian conductor, the son of conductor Arvīds Jansons. His mother, the singer Iraida Jansons, who was Jewish, gave birth to him in hiding in Riga, Latvia, after her father and brother were killed in the Riga Ghetto...
  
  
• Paavo Järvi
  Paavo Järvi
  Paavo Järvi is an Estonian-American conductor, and current Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris.Järvi was born in Tallinn, Estonia, to conductor Neeme Järvi and Liilia Järvi. His siblings, Kristjan Järvi and Maarika Järvi, are also musicians...
  
  
• Herbert von Karajan
  Herbert von Karajan
  Herbert von Karajan was an Austrian orchestra and opera conductor. To the wider world he was perhaps most famously associated with the Berlin Philharmonic, of which he was principal conductor for 35 years...
  
  
• Rudolf Kempe
  Rudolf Kempe
  Rudolf Kempe was a German conductor.- Biography :Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and then in the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, from 1929...
  
  

• Otto Klemperer
  Otto Klemperer
  Otto Klemperer was a German conductor and composer. He is widely regarded as one of the leading conductors of the 20th century.-Biography:Otto Klemperer was born in Breslau, Silesia Province, then in Germany...
  
  
• John Lanchbery
  John Lanchbery
  John Arthur Lanchbery OBE was an English, later Australian, composer and conductor, famous for his ballet arrangements.-Life:...
  
  
• Sir Charles Mackerras
  Charles Mackerras
  Sir Alan Charles Maclaurin Mackerras, AC, CH, CBE was an Australian conductor. He was an authority on the operas of Janáček and Mozart, and the comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan...
  
  

• Sir Neville Marriner
  Neville Marriner
  Sir Neville Marriner is an English conductor and violinist.-Biography:Marriner was born in Lincoln and studied at the Royal College of Music and the Paris Conservatoire. He played the violin in the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Martin String Quartet and London Symphony Orchestra, playing with the...
  
  
• Jean Martinon
  Jean Martinon
  Jean Martinon was a French conductor and composer.-Biography:Martinon was born in Lyon, where he began his education, going on to the Conservatoire de Paris to study under Albert Roussel for composition, under Charles Munch and Roger Désormière for conducting, under Vincent d'Indy for harmony,...
  
  
• Kurt Masur
  Kurt Masur
  Kurt Masur is a German conductor, particularly noted for his interpretation of German Romantic music.- Biography :Masur was born in Brieg, Lower Silesia, Germany and studied piano, composition and conducting in Leipzig, Saxony. Masur has been married three times...
  
  
• Ingo Metzmacher
  Ingo Metzmacher
  Ingo Metzmacher is a German conductor. He is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher. His musical education in piano, music theory and conducting was in Hanover, Salzburg and Cologne...
  
  
• Riccardo Muti
  Riccardo Muti
  Riccardo Muti, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI is an Italian conductor and music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.-Childhood and education:...
  
  
• Sir Roger Norrington
  Roger Norrington
  Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington, CBE is a British conductor. He is the son of Sir Arthur Norrington and his brother is Humphrey Thomas Norrington....
  
  
• Antonio Pappano
  Antonio Pappano
  Antonio Pappano is a British conductor and pianist of Italian parentage.Pappano's family relocated to England from Castelfranco in Miscano near Benevento, Italy in 1958 and at the time of his birth his parents worked in the restaurant business, but Pasquale Pappano, his father, was by vocation a...
  
  
• André Previn
  André Previn
  André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
  
  
• Sir John Pritchard
• Sir Simon Rattle
  Simon Rattle
  Sir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
  
  
• Jérémie Rhorer
• Blair Ellis Robertson
• Wolfgang Sawallisch
  Wolfgang Sawallisch
  Wolfgang Sawallisch is a retired German conductor and pianist.-Biography:Sawallisch was born in Munich, and studied composition and pianoforte there privately: at the conclusion of the war, in 1946 he continued his studies at the Munich High School for Music and passed his final examination for...
  
  
• Jeffrey Tate
  Jeffrey Tate
  Dr Jeffrey Tate CBE is an English conductor.Tate was born with spina bifida, and also has kyphosis. His family moved to Farnham, Surrey when he was young and he attended Farnham Grammar School between 1954 and 1961 gaining a State Scholarship to Cambridge University, where he directed theatre...
  
  
• Franz Welser-Möst
  Franz Welser-Möst
  Franz Welser-Möst is an Austrian conductor who is currently the music director for the Cleveland Orchestra and the Vienna State Opera.- Biography :...
  
  
• Sir David Willcocks

Chamber ensembles

• Ahn Trio
  Ahn Trio
  The Ahn Trio is a classical piano trio comprised of three sisters: Angella , Lucia and Maria . Lucia and Maria are twins. Born in Seoul, Korea, they moved to New York City in 1981 and began their training at the Juilliard School. The sisters decided to form a trio while they were earning their...
  
  
• L'Arpeggiata
  L'Arpeggiata
  L'Arpeggiata is a European early music group led by Christina Pluhar, and founded by her in 2000.-Discography:* La Vilanella * Homo Fugit Velut Umbra * La Tarantella * All'Improvviso * Rappresentazione di Anima et di Corpo...
  
  
• Artemis Quartet
• Alban Berg Quartett

• Belcea Quartet
  Belcea Quartet
  The Belcea Quartet is a string quartet, formed in 1994, under the leadership of violinist Corina Belcea.-History:The quartet was formed while its members were studying at the Royal College of Music in London. Whilst there, they were coached by the Chilingirian Quartet...
  
  
• Eroica Trio
  Eroica Trio
  The Eroica Trio is an American piano trio consisting of Erika Nickrenz, piano; Susie Park, violin; and Sara Sant'Ambrogio, cello. Park joined the trio in September 2006 . The trio take their name from Beethoven's Eroica Symphony...
  
  
• Quatuor Ébène

Choirs and vocal ensembles

• Cantorion
• Choir of Clare College Cambridge
  Choir of Clare College Cambridge
  The Choir of Clare College, Cambridge is a mixed voice choir whose primary function is to lead services in the College's Chapel. In addition, the choir keeps an active schedule of recording, broadcasting, and performing. The Choir has toured throughout Europe, the United States, Japan, China,...
  
  
• Choir of King's College, Cambridge
  Choir of King's College, Cambridge
  The Choir of King's College, Cambridge is one of today's most accomplished and renowned representatives of the great British choral tradition. It was created by King Henry VI, who founded King's College, Cambridge in 1441, to provide daily singing in his Chapel, which remains the main task of the...
  
  
• Christ Church Cathedral Choir, Oxford
• John Alldis Choir

• The King's Singers
• Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Choir
• Rundfunkchor Berlin
• Westminster Abbey Choir
• Winchester Cathedral Choir
  Winchester Cathedral Choir
  The Winchester Cathedral Choir is an internationally recognized professional choir based at the Winchester Cathedral at Winchester in Hampshire. The choir currently consists of 18 boy choristers and 12 lay clerks and sings eight services weekly in the Cathedral. Sometimes the group augments their...
  
  

Orchestras

• Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
  Academy of St. Martin in the Fields
  The Academy of St Martin in the Fields is an English chamber orchestra, based in London.Sir Neville Marriner founded the ensemble as The Academy of St.-Martin-in-the-Fields in London as a small, conductorless string group. The ensemble's name comes from Trafalgar Square's St Martin-in-the-Fields...
  
  
• Les Arts Florissants
  Les Arts Florissants (ensemble)
  Les Arts Florissants is a Baroque musical ensemble in residence at the Théâtre de Caen in Caen, France. The organization was founded by conductor William Christie in 1979. The ensemble derives its name from the 1685 opera by Marc-Antoine Charpentier. The organization consists of a chamber orchestra...
  
  
• Berliner Philharmoniker
• Le Cercle de l’Harmonie
• Il Complesso Barocco
• Le Concert d’Astrée
• Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen
• English Chamber Orchestra
  English Chamber Orchestra
  The English Chamber Orchestra is a British chamber orchestra based in London. The full orchestra regularly plays concerts at Cadogan Hall, and the ECO Ensemble performs at Wigmore Hall...
  
  

• Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
  Estonian National Symphony Orchestra
  The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra is the leading orchestra in Estonia and is based in the capital Tallinn. Founded as the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra, it gave its first concert in a broadcast by Tallinn Radio on December 18, 1926...
  
  
• Europa Galante
  Europa Galante
  Europa Galante is an Italian period instrument Baroque orchestra founded by violinist Fabio Biondi in 1990 and directed by him since that time....
  
  
• Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra
• London Chamber Orchestra
  London Chamber Orchestra
  The London Chamber Orchestra ' is the longest established professional chamber orchestra in the UK. Based in London, LCO has a residency at St John's Smith Square in Westminster.-History:...
  
  
• London Philharmonic Orchestra
  London Philharmonic Orchestra
  The London Philharmonic Orchestra , based in London, is one of the major orchestras of the United Kingdom, and is based in the Royal Festival Hall. In addition, the LPO is the main resident orchestra of the Glyndebourne Festival Opera...
  
  
• London Symphony Orchestra
  London Symphony Orchestra
  The London Symphony Orchestra is a major orchestra of the United Kingdom, as well as one of the best-known orchestras in the world. Since 1982, the LSO has been based in London's Barbican Centre.-History:...
  
  
• Orchestre Philharmonique de Monte Carlo
• Philharmonia Orchestra
  Philharmonia Orchestra
  The Philharmonia Orchestra is one of the leading orchestras in Great Britain, based in London. Since 1995, it has been based in the Royal Festival Hall. In Britain it is also the resident orchestra at De Montfort Hall, Leicester and the Corn Exchange, Bedford, as well as The Anvil, Basingstoke...
  
  
• Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
  Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
  The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is a British orchestra based in London. It tours widely, and is sometimes referred to as "Britain's national orchestra"...
  
  

Piano

• Simon Trpčeski
  Simon Trpceski
  Simon Trpcheski , OMM , is a Macedonian classical pianist. In 2002, he received his degree in music from the University of St. Cyril and St. Methodius in Skopje, Republic of Macedonia, where he studied with Professor Boris Romanov...
  
  
• Leif Ove Andsnes
  Leif Ove Andsnes
  Leif Ove Andsnes is a Norwegian pianist and an ardent champion of the works of Edvard Grieg.-Biography:He studied with Jiří Hlinka at the Bergen Music Conservatory and made his debut in Oslo in 1987, in Britain at the Edinburgh Festival with the Oslo Philharmonic in 1989, and in the United States...
  
  
• Piotr Anderszewski
  Piotr Anderszewski
  Piotr Anderszewski is a Polish-Hungarian pianist.- Biography :Anderszewski was born in Warsaw, Poland. He attended conservatories in Lyon and Strasbourg, the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music in Warsaw, and the University of Southern California Thornton School of Music in Los Angeles.- Career...
  
  
• Martha Argerich
  Martha Argerich
  Martha Argerich is an Argentine pianist.-Early life:Argerich was born in Buenos Aires and started playing the piano at age three...
  
  
• Daniel Barenboim
  Daniel Barenboim
  Daniel Barenboim, KBE is an Argentinian-Israeli pianist and conductor. He has served as music director of several major symphonic and operatic orchestras and made numerous recordings....
  
  
• Jonathan Biss
  Jonathan Biss
  Jonathan Biss is an American classical pianist.Biss represents the third generation in a family of professional musicians, which includes his grandmother Raya Garbousova , as well as his parents, the Israeli-born violinist Miriam Fried and the violist Paul Biss...
  
  
• Youri Egorov
  Youri Egorov
  Youri Aleksandrovich Egorov was a Soviet classical pianist.-Early years:Born in Kazan, USSR, Youri Egorov studied music at the Kazan Conservatory from the age of 6 until age 17. One of his early teachers was Irina Dubinina, a former pupil of Yakov Zak ....
  
  
• Ingrid Fliter
  Ingrid Fliter
  Ingrid Fliter is an Argentinian pianist. She began her formal piano studies with Elizabeth Westerkamp. Her first public appearance in recital was at age 11, and she made her concerto debut at the Teatro Colón at age 16....
  
  
• David Fray
  David Fray
  David Fray is a French classical pianist. Voted "Newcomer of the Year 2008" by the BBC Music Magazine, Fray has gained attention for his musical interpretation as well as his eccentricities in performance and rehearsal, which were highlighted in the 2008 ARTE documentary about him titled "Swing,...
  
  

• Evgeny Kissin
  Evgeny Kissin
  Evgeny Igorevitch Kissin is a Russian classical pianist and former child prodigy. He has been a British citizen since 2002. He is especially known for his interpretations of the works of the Romantic repertoire, particularly Frédéric Chopin and Franz Liszt.-Biography:Kissin was born in Moscow to...
  
  
• Stephen Kovacevich
  Stephen Kovacevich
  Stephen Kovacevich , who has also been known as Stephen Bishop and Stephen Bishop-Kovacevich is an American classical pianist and conductor.-Biography:...
  
  
• Li Yundi
  Li Yundi
  Li Yundi is a Chinese classical pianist. He is also popularly known as Yundi and formerly Yundi Li. Born in Chongqing, Li is most well known for being the youngest pianist to win the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, in 2000, at the age of 18...
  
  
• Dong-Hyek Lim
  Dong-Hyek Lim
  Dong-Hyek Lim is a South Korean classical pianist. Lim has previously studied with Arie Vardi at the Hochschule fuer Musik in Hannover and received the Samsung Culture Scholarship and the Ezoe Scholarship...
  
  
• Gabriela Montero
  Gabriela Montero
  Gabriela Montero is a Venezuelan-American pianist.Born in Caracas, Venezuela, of an American-born mother and a Venezuelan father, Gabriela Montero was barely a seven-month-old infant when her parents, at the insistence of her maternal grandmother, placed a toy piano in her playpen. It had been...
  
  
• John Ogdon
  John Ogdon
  John Andrew Howard Ogdon was an English pianist and composer.-Biography:Ogdon was born in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, and attended Manchester Grammar School, before studying at the Royal Northern College of Music between 1953 and 1957, where his fellow students under Richard Hall...
  
  
• André Previn
  André Previn
  André George Previn, KBE is an American pianist, conductor, and composer. He is considered one of the most versatile musicians in the world, and is the winner of four Academy Awards for his film work and ten Grammy Awards for his recordings. -Early Life:Previn was born in...
  
  
• Blair Ellis Robertson
• Ayako Uehara
  Ayako Uehara
  is a classical pianist.She won 2nd prize in the 2000 Sydney International Piano Competition. In 2002 she became the first woman to win the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition....
  
  
• Lars Vogt
  Lars Vogt
  -Career:Lars Vogt studied at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater Hannover with Karl-Heinz Kämmerling. He rose to prominence after winning second prize at the 1990 Leeds International Piano Competition and has since gone on to give major concerto and recital performances. In the 2003/04 season he...
  
  
• Alexis Weissenberg
  Alexis Weissenberg
  -Early life and career:Born into a Jewish family in Sofia, Weissenberg began taking piano lessons at the age of three from Pancho Vladigerov. He gave his first public performance at the age of eight. After escaping to what was then Palestine in 1945, where he studied under Leo Kestenberg, he went...
  
  

Violin

• Linda Brava
  Linda Brava
  Linda Magdalena Cullberg Lampenius, better known by her maiden name Linda Lampenius and international stage name Linda Brava, is a Finnish classical concert violinist and recording artist.-Background:...
  
  
• Renaud Capuçon
• Sarah Chang
  Sarah Chang
  Sarah Chang is a Korean American violinist. Her debut came in 1989 with the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Shortly thereafter, Chang was recognized as a child prodigy. She enrolled at Juilliard School to study music, graduating in 1999 and continuing university studies...
  
  
• Kyung-wha Chung
  Kyung-wha Chung
  Kyung-wha Chung is a Korean violinist.- Biography :Kyung-wha Chung's musical career began at the age of three. Her fame in the seventies and eighties was at the top level, and ranked alongside the great violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman...
  
  
• Nigel Kennedy
  Nigel Kennedy
  Nigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
  
  
• Sir Yehudi Menuhin
  Yehudi Menuhin
  Yehudi Menuhin, Baron Menuhin, OM, KBE was a Russian Jewish American violinist and conductor who spent most of his performing career in the United Kingdom. He was born to Russian Jewish parents in the United States, but became a citizen of Switzerland in 1970, and of the United Kingdom in 1985...
  
  

• Anne-Sophie Mutter
  Anne-Sophie Mutter
  Anne-Sophie Mutter is a German violinist.- Early life :Mutter was born in Rheinfelden, Germany. She began playing the piano at age five, and shortly afterwards took up the violin, studying with Erna Honigberger, a pupil of Carl Flesch...
  
  
• Jascha Heifetz
  Jascha Heifetz
  Jascha Heifetz was a violinist, born in Vilnius, then Russian Empire, now Lithuania. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest violinists of all time.- Early life :...
  
  
• David Oistrakh
  David Oistrakh
  David Fyodorovich Oistrakh , , David Fiodorović Ojstrakh, ; – October 24, 1974, was a Soviet violinist....
  
  
• Itzhak Perlman
  Itzhak Perlman
  Itzhak Perlman is an Israeli-born violinist, conductor, and instructor of master classes. He is regarded as one of the pre-eminent violinists of the 20th and early-21st centuries.-Early life:...
  
  
• Blair Ellis Robertson
• Christian Tetzlaff
  Christian Tetzlaff
  -Biography:Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. He began playing the violin and piano at the age of 6, and made his concert debut at 14 years old. He studied with Uwe-Martin Haiberg at the Musikhochschule Lübeck and with Walter Levine at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music.He is...
  
  
• Maxim Vengerov
  Maxim Vengerov
  Maxim Alexandrovich Vengerov is a violinist, violist, and conductor who was born in the Soviet Union.-Youth:Born on 20 August 1974 in Novosibirsk, Russia, to a family with musical tradition....
  
  
• Frank Peter Zimmermann
  Frank Peter Zimmermann
  Frank Peter Zimmermann is a German violinist.He was born in Duisburg, Germany, and started playing the violin when he was five years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10....
  
  

Cello

• Andreas Brantelid
• Gautier Capuçon
  Gautier Capuçon
  -Biography:Gautier Capuçon was born in Chambéry, Savoie, the youngest of three siblings. His brother is the violinist Renaud Capuçon.He started learning the cello when he was four years old...
  
  
• Han-na Chang
  Han-na Chang
  Han-Na Chang is a South Korean cellist and conductor.-Childhood:She was born in Suwon, Gyeonggi-do, South Korea to Korean parents. Chang began studying piano at age 3, and began her study in cello three years later at age 6...
  
  
• Natalie Clein
  Natalie Clein
  Natalie Clein is a British cellist. Her mother is a professional violinist. Her sister is the actress Louisa Clein....
  
  
• Julian Lloyd Webber
  Julian Lloyd Webber
  Julian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
  
  

• Jacqueline du Pré
  Jacqueline du Pré
  Jacqueline Mary du Pré OBE was a British cellist. She is particularly associated with Elgar's Cello Concerto in E Minor; her interpretation has been described as "definitive" and "legendary." Her career was cut short by multiple sclerosis, which forced her to stop performing at 28 and led to her...
  
  
• Truls Mørk
  Truls Mørk
  Truls Olaf Otterbech Mørk is a Norwegian cellist.Mørk was born in Bergen, Norway, the son of two professional musicians, his father a cellist and his mother a pianist. His mother began teaching him the piano when he was seven...
  
  
• Mstislav Rostropovich
  Mstislav Rostropovich
  Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich, KBE , known to close friends as Slava, was a Soviet and Russian cellist and conductor. He was married to the soprano Galina Vishnevskaya. He is widely considered to have been the greatest cellist of the second half of the 20th century, and one of the greatest of...
  
  
• Trey Lee Chui-yee
  Trey Lee Chui-yee
  Trey Chui-yee Lee is an internationally renowned cellist. He was born in Hong Kong in the 1970s, but grew up in the United States of America. He attended the Juilliard Music School, majoring in cello. Afterwards, he went to Harvard University, to major in Economics...
  
  

Soprano

• Maria Callas
  Maria Callas
  Maria Callas was an American-born Greek soprano and one of the most renowned opera singers of the 20th century. She combined an impressive bel canto technique, a wide-ranging voice and great dramatic gifts...
  
  
• Patrizia Ciofi
  Patrizia Ciofi
  Patrizia Ciofi, born in Casole d'Elsa, Siena, on June 7, 1967, is an Italian operatic soprano. She is married to the conductor Luciano Acocella....
  
  
• Diana Damrau
  Diana Damrau
  Diana Damrau is a German lyric coloratura soprano of the operatic stage.-Biography:Diana Damrau was born in 1971 in Günzburg, Bavaria, Germany, and began her operatic studies with Carmen Hanganu at the Musikhochschule in Würzburg. After graduating from music conservatory she worked in Salzburg...
  
  
• Natalie Dessay
  Natalie Dessay
  Natalie Dessay is a French coloratura soprano. She dropped the silent "h" in her first name in honor of Natalie Wood when she was in grade school and subsequently simplified the spelling of her surname outside France...
  
  
• Véronique Gens
  Véronique Gens
  Véronique Gens is a French soprano. She has spent much of her career recording and performing Baroque music....
  
  
• Angela Gheorghiu
  Angela Gheorghiu
  Angela Gheorghiu is a Romanian soprano opera singer. Since her professional debut in 1990, she has sung as soprano leading roles at New York's Metropolitan Opera, Covent Garden's Royal Opera House, the Vienna State Opera, Milan's La Scala, and many other opera houses in Europe and the United States...
  
  
• Barbara Hendricks
  Barbara Hendricks
  Barbara Hendricks is an African American operatic soprano and concert singer. Hendricks has lived in Europe since 1977, and in Switzerland on Lake Geneva since 1985, She is a citizen of Sweden.-Early life and education:...
  
  

• Denise Leigh
• Natasha Marsh
  Natasha Marsh
  Natasha Jane Marsh is a Welsh operatic soprano. A highly-regarded performer in both opera and oratorio, her debut album, Amour, topped the classical album charts in 2007. She has toured with artists such as G4, Russell Watson, Il Divo and Paul Potts...
  
  
• Mady Mesplé
  Mady Mesplé
  Mady Mesplé is a French opera singer, the leading high coloratura soprano of her generation in France, sometimes heralded as the successor to Mado Robin.-Biography:...
  
  
• Kate Royal
  Kate Royal
  Kate Royal is an English lyric soprano. She is the daughter of Steve Royal, a singer and songwriter for television, and of Carolyn Royal, a former model and dancer....
  
  
• Dame Elizabeth Schwarzkopf
• Dame Kiri Te Kanawa
  Kiri Te Kanawa
  Dame Kiri Jeanette Te Kanawa, ONZ, DBE, AC is a New Zealand / Māori soprano who has had a highly successful international opera career since 1968. Acclaimed as one of the most beloved sopranos in both the United States and Britain she possesses a warm full lyric soprano voice, singing a wide array...
  
  
• Liping Zhang
  Liping Zhang
  Zhang Liping is a Chinese-Canadian soprano, who has sung leading roles in the opera houses of both Europe and North America. She is particularly known for her portrayal of Madama Butterfly.-Background:...
  
  

Mezzo-soprano

• Dame Janet Baker
  Janet Baker
  Dame Janet Abbott Baker, CH, DBE, FRSA is an English mezzo-soprano best known as an opera, concert, and lieder singer.She was particularly closely associated with baroque and early Italian opera and the works of Benjamin Britten...
  
  
• Joyce DiDonato
  Joyce DiDonato
  Joyce DiDonato is an award-winning American operatic mezzo-soprano particularly admired for her interpretations of the works of Handel, Mozart, and Rossini...
  
  
• Fairuz
  Fairuz
  Nouhad Wadi Haddad , famously known as Fairuz is a Lebanese singer who is widely considered to be the most famous living singer in the Arab world and one of the best known of all time...
  
  
• Christa Ludwig
  Christa Ludwig
  Christa Ludwig is a retired German mezzo-soprano, distinguished for her performances of opera, Lieder, oratorio and other major religious works like masses and passions, and solos contained in symphonic literature...
  
  
• Réjane Magloire
  Réjane Magloire
  Réjane "Reggie" Magloire is a singer, model, and actress.Magloire was born in Zaire but grew up in New York. She studied Western classical music with heavy emphasis on opera singing...
  
  

Countertenor

• Max Emanuel Cencic
  Max Emanuel Cencic
  Max Emanuel Cencic is a countertenor, currently based in Austria.- Early Career as a Boy Soprano :...
  
  
• David Daniels
• Philippe Jaroussky
  Philippe Jaroussky
  Philippe Jaroussky is a French sopranist countertenor. He began his musical career with the violin, winning an award at the Versailles conservatory and then took up the piano before turning to singing...
  
  
• Gerard Lesne
  Gérard Lesne
  Gérard Lesne is a French countertenor. He also the founder and artistic director of the baroque music ensemble, Il Seminario Musicale...
  
  

Tenor

• Roberto Alagna
  Roberto Alagna
  Roberto Alagna is a French-Italian tenor. He was born in Clichy-sous-Bois, Seine-Saint-Denis, France.-Early years:Alagna was born outside of the city of Paris in 1963 to a family of Sicilian immigrants . As a teenager, the young Alagna began busking and singing pop in Parisian cabarets for tips...
  
  
• Alfie Boe
  Alfie Boe
  Alfred Giovanni Roncalli Boe, known professionally initially as Alf or Alfred Boe and now as Alfie Boe, , is an English tenor.-Background:...
  
  
• Ian Bostridge
  Ian Bostridge
  Ian Bostridge CBE is an English tenor, well known for his performances as an opera singer and as a song recitalist.-Early life and education:...
  
  
• Franco Corelli
  Franco Corelli
  Franco Corelli was a famous Italian tenor who had a major international opera career between 1951 and 1976. Associated in particular with the spinto and dramatic tenor roles of the Italian repertory, he was celebrated universally for his powerhouse voice, electrifying top notes, clear timbre, a...
  
  

• Plácido Domingo
  Plácido Domingo
  Plácido Domingo KBE , born José Plácido Domingo Embil, is a Spanish tenor and conductor known for his versatile and strong voice, possessing a ringing and dramatic tone throughout its range...
  
  
• Abdel Halim Hafez
  Abdel Halim Hafez
  Abdel Halim Ali Shabana commonly known as Abdel Halim Hafez , is among the most popular Egyptian and Arab singers and performers. In addition to singing, Halim was also an actor, conductor, business man, music teacher and movie producer...
  
  
• Simon O'Neill
  Simon O'Neill
  Simon O'Neill is a New Zealand-born operatic tenor.-Biography:O'Neill was born in Ashburton, New Zealand and received his musical training at the University of Otago, Victoria University of Wellington, graduating with an honours degree in music, before receiving scholarships to the Manhattan...
  
  
• Rolando Villazon
  Rolando Villazón
  Emilio Rolando Villazón Mauleón is a Mexican tenor. He settled in France and in 2007 became a French citizen.-Early life and education:...
  
  

Crossover acts

• Keedie Babb
• Becky
  Becky
  is a Japanese television personality, or tarento, under the entertainment company Sun Music Productions. Beginning in late 2009, she began a music career under the name Becky♪♯, with the eighth note and sharp representing "a different half of Becky stepping up".-History:Becky was born in Kanagawa...
  
  
• Sarah Brightman
  Sarah Brightman
  Sarah Brightman is an English classical crossover soprano, actress, songwriter and dancer. She is famous for possessing a vocal range of over 3 octaves and singing in the whistle register...
  
  
• Celtic Tenors
  Celtic Tenors
  The Celtic Tenors began life as the Three Irish Tenors on RTE's Theatre Nights on October 1995. The group at that time consisted of James Nelson, Niall Morris and Paul Hennessey....
  
  
• Celtic Woman
  Celtic Woman
  Celtic Woman is an all-female musical ensemble conceived and assembled by Sharon Browne and David Downes, a former musical director of the Irish stage show Riverdance...
  
  
• Keith Emerson
  Keith Emerson
  Keith Noel Emerson is an English keyboard player and composer. Formerly a member of the Keith Emerson Trio, John Brown's Bodies, The T-Bones, V.I.P.s, P.P. Arnold's backing band, and The Nice , he was a founder of Emerson, Lake & Palmer , one of the early supergroups, in 1970...
  
  
• Giorgia Fumanti
  Giorgia Fumanti
  Giorgia Fumanti is an Italian soprano , composer, producer and arranger now based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Her music is best compared to that of Andrea Bocelli, Sarah Brightman and Enya. Her debut EMI album "From My Heart" reached the top 20 on the Billboard Crossover Chart...
  
  
• Lesley Garrett
  Lesley Garrett
  Lesley Garrett CBE is an English musician, broadcaster and media personality.- Early life :Garrett was born in the town of Thorne near Doncaster in South Yorkshire, into a musical family. She attended Thorne Grammar School, where she performed in school plays and musicals. As she grew up she...
  
  
• Jane Gilchrist

• Myleene Klass
  Myleene Klass
  Myleene Angela Quinn is an English singer, pianist, media personality and occasional model. She was formerly a member of the defunct British pop band Hear'Say.-Early life:...
  
  
• Libera
  Libera (music)
  Libera is a non-profit all-boy English vocal group directed by Robert Prizeman. Most members come from the parish choir of St. Philip's, Norbury, in South London. The albums, tours and TV appearances they do as Libera are in addition to their regular singing as part of the full choir of men and...
  
  
• Mediaeval Baebes
• Maksim Mrvica
  Maksim Mrvica
  Maksim Mrvica is a Croatian pianist. He plays classical crossover music.- History :Mrvica was born in Šibenik, Croatia. He took up piano lessons from the age of nine from Marija Sekso and gave his first public performance in the same year. Just three years later he gave his first concert...
  
  
• Nigel Kennedy Quintet
• The Planets
  The Planets
  The Planets, Op. 32, is a seven-movement orchestral suite by the English composer Gustav Holst, written between 1914 and 1916. Each movement of the suite is named after a planet of the Solar System and its corresponding astrological character as defined by Holst...
  
  
• Anoushka Shankar
  Anoushka Shankar
  Anoushka Shankar is a British Indian sitar player and composer who lives between the United States, the United Kingdom, and India. She is the daughter of Indian sitar player Ravi Shankar and Sukanya Shankar...
  
  
• Wild
  Wild (band)
  Wild were a five-piece classical female group. They were often compared to Bond, due to the very similar makeup and style of both groups.Although most of the band was English, Iva Cojic and Andjelka Ristic were born in Serbia.-History:...
  
  

Catalogue series

• 100 Best (6-CD budget series)
• 20th Century Classics series (2-CD)
• American Classics
• Black Boxes (Virgin Classics 5C-D budget series)
• British Composers
• Debut (developing artist series)
• Encore (1-CD budget series)
• EMI Masters
• EMI - The Home of Opera
• Gemini (2-CD mid-price series)
• Great Artists of the Century
• Great Recordings of the Century
• Historical (series of public domain recordings)
• ICON series
• The Karajan Collection

• The Klemperer Legacy
• Legend (CD+DVD series)
• Maria Callas Edition
• Opera Series (budget opera series without libretto)
• The Perlman Edition
• The Platinum Collection (3-CD budget series from EMI UK)
• Recommends Series (Gramophone / Penguin Guide recommended series from EMI UK)
• References (historical series from EMI France)
• Rouge et Noir (2-CD mid price series from EMI France)
• The Classics (Virgin Classics budget series)
• Triples (3-CD budget series)
• Veritas (Virgin Classics original instrument recordings)
• Virgin de Virgin
• Virgo (Virgin Classics budget series)