New World Records
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New World Records is a non-profit record label that documents important American music largely ignored by the commercial recording companies. It is part of Anthology of Recorded Music, Inc. (formerly Recorded Anthology of American Music, Inc.).
Like a university press, New World Records preserves neglected treasures of the past and nurtures the creative future of American music. Through the production of over 400 recordings, some 700 American composers have been represented. In an industry obsessed with million-unit sales and immediate profits, New World Records chooses artistic merit as its indicator of success.
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[edit] Origins
The company was founded in 1975 with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation with a mandate to produce a 100-disc anthology of American music encompassing the broadest possible spectrum of musical genres. This set of recordings, together with their extensive liner notes, provides a core curriculum in American music and American studies. In 1978 the Anthology was completed and distributed free of charge to almost 7,000 educational and cultural institutions throughout the world. An additional 2,000 Anthologies were sold at cost to other similar institutions. Through these recordings two hundred years of music and American cultural history are brought to life.
In 2006, rights to the Composers Recordings, Inc. (CRI) label were transferred to New World (CRI shut its doors in 2003 due to financial pressures). Burn-on-demand discs of the CRI CD catalogue are now available from New World. By the end of 2008, the LP catalogue will also be available.
To better serve music libraries, New World offers DRAM, an online digital library resource. DRAM is a collaboration with New York University that provides students and faculty at subscribing institutions with unlimited high quality streaming access to complete works and liner notes. In addition to New World and CRI content, label partners include Albany Records, Artifact Recordings, innova Recordings, Cedille Records, Cold Blue Music, Frog Peak Music, Pogus Productions, Deep Listening, Mode Records, Experimental Media, Open Space and Mutable Music. The project is supported by funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
[edit] New releases
New World currently releases 12-16 new titles per year. Music is chosen from a wide repertory including concert and choral music, opera, sacred music, band music, jazz, traditional, folk, Native American music, popular songs and dances, and musical theater.
[edit] Awards and recognition
Over the years, nineteen New World titles have received Grammy Award nominations and three of them have won— Samuel Barber's Antony and Cleopatra in 1984, Leonard Bernstein's Candide in 1986, and Ned Rorem's String Symphony, Sunday Morning, Eagles in 1989.
