“The philosophy of the label is very simple,” says John C. Baker, founder of Affetto Records. “We want to bring high-end musicians through a world of broadcast and CD distribution to people who may not have heard them before or know of them, with unique recordings of world premiere music – new arrangements, new compositions – and that’s basically what we have done in the last year.”
Baker, a multi-Grammy nominated producer and recording engineer, established the Princeton-based Affetto in 2004 for the purpose of a jazz release. It was revived only last year to serve reputable classical musicians who were having difficulty finding labels willing to record them.
“They were having trouble getting their recordings released,” he says. “It has become so much more difficult in this world of decreasing CD impact, although classical music is one of the only genres in which CD sales are still increasing, especially overseas. So I was encouraged, shall we say, to start my own label.”
One of those musicians was Elmira Darvarova, former concert master of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra. Darvarova performs on Affetto’s most recent release, “Amalgam,” an unusual venture, which places her alongside Indian sarod master Amjad Ali Kahn, his two sons, Amaan and Ayaan Ali Khan, and tabla player Tanmoy Bose. The album was released overseas through an arrangement with Times Music, India’s largest record label and music publisher.
“Amalgam” is only the most recent of a stimulating – and growing – catalog of recordings in Affetto’s stable, including first issues of music by Bach, Mendelssohn, Cyril Scott, and composers of American art song.
Since 1992, Baker has recorded more than 200 albums, both self-released and for other labels. He engineers many of the live concerts heard on WWFM – The Classical Network and contributes to both NPR and PRI.
Find out more about it in my article in today’s Trenton Times.
http://www.nj.com/times-entertainment/index.ssf/2016/08/classical_music_princeton_prod.html
