Connoisseur Society is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 audiophile classical music

Classical music

Classical music is the art music produced in, or rooted in, the traditions of Western liturgical and secular music, encompassing a broad period from roughly the 11th century to present times...

 and jazz

Jazz

Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...

 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,...

 based in New York

New York

New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...

. It was founded by E. Alan Silver and James Goodfriend. Silver is also leading the company In Sync, which offers remasterings

Audio mastering

Mastering, a form of audio post-production, is the process of preparing and transferring recorded audio from a source containing the final mix to a data storage device ; the source from which all copies will be produced...

 on CDs from tapes and LP

LP record

The LP, or long-playing microgroove record, is a format for phonograph records, an analog sound storage medium. Introduced by Columbia Records in 1948, it was soon adopted as a new standard by the entire record industry...

s.

Silver and Goodfriend helped artists from the Eastern bloc

Eastern bloc

The term Eastern Bloc or Communist Bloc refers to the former communist states of Eastern and Central Europe, generally the Soviet Union and the countries of the Warsaw Pact...

 to perform in the USA during the Cold War

Cold War

The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...

, e. g. Ivan Moravec

Ivan Moravec

Ivan Moravec is a Czech concert pianist whose performing and recording career, spanning nearly half a century, has gained him a worldwide following....

 in 1962.

Connoisseur Society released vinyl and CD albums of Millette Alexander

Millette Alexander

Millette Alexander is an American actress and concert pianist, best known for being the third and longest-running actress to portray the role of Dr. Sara McIntyre on the serial The Guiding Light. Alexander played the role from December 1968 until June 1983, playing the adoptive mother of Kevin...

 and Frank Daykin, known as Alexander and Daykin

Alexander and Daykin

Millette Alexander and Frank Daykin, known as Alexander and Daykin, are an American piano duo performing various pieces for piano four-hands and two pianos....

, Sergei Babayan

Sergei Babayan

Sergei Babayan is an Armenian-American concert pianist.-Biography:Babayan began his musical studies at age six with Luisa Markaryan. He studied under Lev Naumov and at the Moscow Conservatory under Vera Gornostayeva and Mikhail Pletnev. In 1989 Babayan travelled to the United States...

, Antonio Barbosa, Samuel Bartos, Sara Davis Buechner

Sara Davis Buechner

Sara Davis Buechner is an American concert pianist and educator. She has been an assistant professor of piano at the University of British Columbia since 2003, and was formerly a member of the faculties of Manhattan School of Music and New York University.Buechner received her bachelor's and...

 (born David Buechner), Linda Bustani, George Darden, Kate Dillingham, Walter Hautzig

Walter Hautzig

-Biography:Hautzig studied under Mieczysław Munz. He has taught master classes to hundreds of students all around the world. He has done tours in Japan over 30 times and has performed for President Jimmy Carter...

, Morton Estrin

Morton Estrin

Morton Estrin, the noted American pianist, was born in Burlington, Vermont in 1923. His career began in 1949 with a well-received recital at Town Hall. He studied with the noted teacher Vera Maurina-Press and others....

, Madeleine Forte, Joyce Hatto

Joyce Hatto

Joyce Hatto was a British pianist and piano teacher. She became famous late in life, when unauthorised copies of commercial recordings made by other pianists were released under her name, earning her high praise from critics. The fraud did not come to light until a few months after her...

, Michael Jamanis, Trudy Kane, Ruth Laredo

Ruth Laredo

Ruth Laredo was an American classical pianist.She became known in the 1970s in particular for her premiere recordings of the 10 sonatas of Scriabin and the complete solo piano works of Rachmaninoff, for her Ravel recordings and in the last 16½ years before her death for her series in the...

, Mirjana Lewis, João Carlos Martins

João Carlos Martins

João Carlos Martins, born June 25, 1940 in Sao Paulo, Brazil is an acclaimed Brazilian classical pianist and conductor, who has performed with leading orchestras in the United States, Europe and Brazil....

, Blair McMillan, Ivan Moravec, Garrick Ohlsson

Garrick Ohlsson

Garrick Ohlsson is an American classical pianist.Ohlsson was the first American to win first prize in the International Frédéric Chopin Piano Competition, in 1970. He also won first prize at the Busoni Competition in Italy and the Montreal Piano Competition in Canada...

, Zaidee Parkinson, Manitas de Plata

Manitas de Plata

Manitas de Plata . is a French Gitano flamenco guitarist.-Life:He was born in a Gypsy caravan in Sète in southern France...

, Richard Reid, Cynthia Raim, Alberto Reyes

Alberto Reyes

Alberto Reyes is a known Uruguayan pianist and United Nations interpreter.-Biography:Born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1948, Alberto Reyes started piano studies at the age of six with Sarah Bourdillon a pupil of Alfred Cortot's Ecole Normale de Musique, and played his first public recital at the age...

, Elizabeth Rich, Edward Rosser, Mordecai Shehori

Mordecai Shehori

Mordecai Shehori is an Israeli-American pianist.-Biography:Mordecai Shehori was born in Israel and studied in Tel Aviv with Mindru Katz, whom he cites as his most influential teacher. At the age of nine he gave his first public performance. Later he received first prize in the Beethoven Competition...

, Myron Silberstein, Patrick Stephens, Joe Utterback, Ilana Vered

Ilana Vered

-Biography:From age 13 to 15 she attended the Paris Conservatoire, which awarded her first prize in piano upon her graduation; among her teachers there were Vlado Perlemuter and Jeanne-Marie Darré. Vered then continued her music studies at the Juilliard School under Rosina Lhévinne...

, Frances Veri, David Allen Wehr, Wanda Wiłkomirska and Oxana Yablonskaya

Oxana Yablonskaya

Oxana Yablonskaya is a Russian pianist who has had an active international performance career since the early 1960s. She began her career in the USSR and, although winning several important competitions in the West, was denied by the Soviet government to accept any performance engagements outside...

.

The latest releases are

• Joe Utterback, piano; “So Many Stars”; Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Hampton
  Lionel Leo Hampton was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, bandleader and actor. Like Red Norvo, he was one of the first jazz vibraphone players. Hampton ranks among the great names in jazz history, having worked with a who's who of jazz musicians, from Benny Goodman and Buddy...
  
  /Sonny Burke
  Sonny Burke
  Sonny Burke was a big band leader. In 1937, he graduated from Duke University where he had formed and led the jazz big band known as the Duke Ambassadors....
  
  : Midnight Sun; Ann Ronell
  Ann Ronell
  Ann Rosenblatt, known as Ann Ronell was an American composer and lyricist best known for the jazz standard "Willow Weep for Me" .- Biography :...
  
  : Willow Weep For Me; Bobby Troup
  Bobby Troup
  Robert William "Bobby" Troup Jr. was an American actor, jazz pianist and songwriter. He is best known for writing the popular standard " Route 66", and for his role as Dr...
  
  : Get Your Kicks on Route 66 (CD 4259)
• Edward Rosser, piano; “Visions of Beyond”, late and last piano works by: Chopin, Beethoven, Brahms, Schubert, Liszt
  Liszt
  Liszt is a Hungarian surname. Notable persons with that surname include:* Franz Liszt , Hungarian composer and pianist* Adam Liszt , father of Franz Liszt* Anna Liszt , mother of Franz Liszt...
  
  , Schumann
  Robert Schumann
  Robert Schumann, sometimes known as Robert Alexander Schumann, was a German composer, aesthete and influential music critic. He is regarded as one of the greatest and most representative composers of the Romantic era....
  
  , Debussy (CD 4260)
• Cynthia Raim, piano; Johannes Brahms: Haendel Variations, Three Intermezzi, Eight Kavierstücke (CD 4266)
• David Allen Wehr, piano; Beethoven: The 32 Piano Sonatas, Volume 4, 2 CDs; Schubert: Piano Sonata in B flat major (CD 4264)

Connoisseur Society became particularly known for the premiere recording of Scriabin's complete 10 sonatas with Ruth Laredo in 1970 (CS 2032, CS 2034 and CS 2035).

External links

• Connoisseur Society, website of Connoisseur Society