NMC Recordings
| NMC Recordings | |
|---|---|
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| Founded | 1989 |
| Founder | Colin Matthews |
| Genre | Contemporary classic music by living British composers |
| Country of origin | U.K. |
| Official website | http://www.nmcrec.co.uk |
NMC Recordings is a British recording label and a charity which specialises in recording works by living composers from the British Isles.
The composer Colin Matthews founded NMC in 1989, with financial assistance from the Holst Foundation. NMC is an abbreviation for "New Music Cassettes", which refers to the intended main means of packaging its recordings at the time. Matthews continues as a producer of NMC's recordings. NMC was originally administered through the Society for the Promotion of New Music. In 1992, NMC became independent, and Matthews invited Bill Colleran to become NMC's first board chairman. Colleran served in this capacity from 1993 to 2004.
Additional financial support for NMC resulted after the 1993 Copyright Duration Directive (93/98/EEC), which extended the copyright term from 50 to 70 years. As a result, the music of Gustav Holst came back into copyright, and NMC obtained increased funding. However, it has fallen out of copyright again, and the Holst Foundation will stop its activities in 2015, leaving NMC with a significant gap in funding.
As a charity, NMC is presided over by a board of trustees composed of Andrew Ward (Chair), Graham Elliott (Deputy Chair), Richard Shoylekov, Richard Fries, Stephen Johns, Ed McKeon, Chris Potts, David Smith and Lee Rodwell. NMC is also supported by its patrons: Alfred Brendel Hon KBE, Vladimir Jurowski, Lady Panufnik, Sir Simon Rattle CBE, Lord Dennis Stevenson of Coddenham and Dame Mitsuko Uchida.
NMC's first recordings, from 1989, were of Jonathan Harvey's Bhakti (NMC D001) [1] and a recital of contemporary solo piano music by Michael Finnissy (NMC D002). NMC's first opera recording was of Harrison Birtwistle's The Mask of Orpheus (NMC D050). Its single best-selling issue is of Anthony Payne's realisation of the sketches for Edward Elgar's Symphony No. 3 (NMC D053). NMC's catalogue has now over 200 recordings. NMC releases 10 to 12 discs per year. NMC has several sub-categories within its releases:
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