Mission Statement

We are convinced that lovers of classical music include people who are always looking for (1) music that they have not heard before that might attract them, and (2) the best performance of music that they are familiar with and already enjoy.

This website was created to help these music lovers achieve both goals. We are uniquely able to fulfill this mission because we bring together two exceptional resources that are not available on any other classical music website: (1) a classical music record collection that includes over 60,000 recordings of more than 35,000 different pieces of music from every corner of the globe, representing every historical period from biblical times to the present — one of the largest collections of classical music in the world; and (2) the expertise of some of the best professional music commentators, musicians, and composers involved in the classical music world.

With these unique resources we present three specialized podcasts and the opportunity to respond to them through our blog: (1) “Buried Treasure” will introduce music from all periods and places, providing an opportunity to explore rarely heard works; (2) panel discussions on the interpretation of classical music in which well-established record critics will review recordings of more familiar works, play excerpts of the performances under review, and explain their individual standards for judging performance; and (3) a podcast in which one of the leading composers in New York interviews notable performers and composers, discussing with them the latest developments in classical music.

Contributors

Victoria Bond
Victoria Bond is the only woman composer/conductor to receive commissions from major organizations and also hold music director positions with leading ensembles. Her extensive catalog includes works written for the Houston, Shanghai, and Richmond Symphony Orchestras, the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, American Ballet Theater, Pennsylvania Ballet, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, and the Audubon String Quartet, among others.  She was recently honored with the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Walter Hinrichsen Award, established by the C.F. Peters Corporation for the publication of a work by a gifted composer.  As a conductor, she has led more than a dozen major orchestras and opera companies throughout the U.S., plus several in China.  In every genre she undertakes, from opera to chamber music, her consummate musicianship serves to enrich a musical language that is beautifully crafted and deeply expressive.

The first woman to be awarded a doctorate in conducting from The Juilliard School, Bond was appointed by Andre Previn as Exxon/Arts Endowment Conductor with the Pittsburgh Symphony in 1978.  In 1986, she was invited to conduct the Houston Symphony and to premiere her own composition for the orchestra, Ringing.  In that same year, she was appointed Music Director and conductor of the Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, and shortly thereafter became artistic director of Opera Roanoke, holding both posts until 1995. She has also served as Music Director of The Bel Canto Opera, Harrisburg Opera and the New Amsterdam Symphony, and as Music Advisor of the Wuhan Symphony in China.

Bond’s musical training also included studies in voice, with William Vennard at the University of Southern California; as a soprano, she recorded with Bethany Beardslee and appeared on the premiere recording of Harry Partch’s Delusion of the Fury.  She has brought her vocal experience to bear in composing works such as Molly ManyBloom for soprano and string quartet, described by The New York Times as “by turns wistful, angry, caustic, rhapsodic and nostalgic,” and her chamber opera Mrs. President, based on the life of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president.  Scenes from Mrs. President were performed by New York City Opera in 2001 as part of the company’s Vox reading series.

Victoria Bond has been profiled in the Wall Street Journal and on NBC’s Today Show, featured in People Magazine and in the New York Times.  Her music is recorded on the Koch International, Albany, GEGA, Protone, and Family Classic labels.  Website: www.victoriabond.com

Sedgwick Clark
Sedgwick Clark has been editor of the Musical America International Directory of the Performing Arts since 1993. For twelve years he was editor of Keynote, the New York classical radio station WNCN-FM’s music magazine and program guide. He has written for Gramophone, The Absolute Sound, The Perfect Vision, and The New York Times, among several other publications. He is particularly pleased to have worked on three highly acclaimed historical recording CD series: Mercury Living Presence, Sony Masterworks Heritage, and the New York Philharmonic’s five ten-CD sets of historical broadcasts, dating from 1923 to 1999, the latter of which he was producer.

Dennis Rooney
Dennis Rooney has contributed reviews and feature articles for more than two decades as the U. S. Correspondent for THE STRAD, the world’s oldest magazine devoted to string instruments, string players and string literature. He is also an occasional contributor to BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE, MUSICAL AMERICA, CLASSIC RECORD COLLECTOR and the ARSC JOURNAL. In addition to writing, he has professional links to broadcasting and narration, and is an audio producer who specializes in digital reissues of historical recordings for such labels as SonyBMG and Universal Classics Group.

Lewis Smoley
Over the last 40 years, Lewis Smoley has accumulated the largest private collection of classical recordings in the world. His collection, on both LP and CD, spans every genre, style, and period in classical music. His passion began in the 1970s, while studying conducting at the Juilliard School and Queens College in New York. His collection includes many thousand rare and unique recordings, venturing well outside traditionally canonized composers and extending to entire countries whose native music is seldom heard by American ears. Smoley’s scholarship on the subject is extensive and includes numerous books and essays on various topics including the critically acclaimed collectors resource The Symphonies of Gustav Mahler: Critical Commentary on Recordings (Greenwood Press, 1996). In addition to his publications, Smoley has hosted several New York classical radio shows, and taught classes on Gustav Mahler, Richard Wagner, Ludwig van Beethoven, and Ralph Vaughan Williams at The New School, New York University, and C.W. Post College. He has served as president (2008) and vice president (1978-2010) of the Gustav Mahler Society of New York, and is considered one of the world’s greatest experts on Mahler’s music.