Sinfini Music was a classical music website containing written features and reviews, news, animations, cartoons, quizzes and filmed sessions. The site was owned by

Universal Music Group Universal Music Group N.V. (often abbreviated as UMG and referred to as just Universal Music) is a Dutch– American multinational music corporation under Dutch law. UMG's corporate headquarters are located in Hilversum, Netherlands and its ...

but claimed to be editorially independent, covering music and releases from all record labels, artists and venues.

Content

Sinfini Music's tagline was "Cutting through classical" and the site focused on presenting the cornerstones of Western classical repertoire in accessible and engaging ways. Where relevant, classical was extended to the outer frontiers of

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

electronica Electronica is both a broad group of electronic-based music styles intended for listening rather than strictly for dancing and a music scene that started in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom. In the United States, the term is mostly used to ...

world In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

and other genres: exclusive interviews and performances have been recorded with

Daniel Barenboim Daniel Barenboim (; in he, דניאל בארנבוים, born 15 November 1942) is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin. He has been since 1992 General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeist ...

Joyce DiDonato Joyce DiDonato (née Flaherty; born February 13, 1969) is an American lyric-coloratura mezzo-soprano. She is notable for her interpretations of operas and concert works in the 19th-century romantic era in addition to works by Handel and Mozar ...

Valentina Lisitsa Valentina Lisitsa, ; russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Лисица, translit=Valentina Evgen'evna Lisica, ) (born 25 March 1970) is a Ukrainian-American pianist. Lisitsa independently launched her career on social media, without ...

, the

Grimethorpe Colliery Band The Grimethorpe Colliery Band is a brass band, based in Grimethorpe, South Yorkshire, England. It was formed in 1917, as a leisure activity for the workers at the colliery, by members of the disbanded Cudworth Colliery Band. Along with the Bla ...

Hauschka Volker Bertelmann (born 1966) is a German pianist and composer who mainly performs and records under the name Hauschka. He is best known for his compositions for prepared piano. Early life Volker Bertelmann was born in Kreuztal, Germany. He ...

and

Anoushka Shankar Anoushka Shankar (born 9 June 1981) is a British-American sitar player, producer, film composer and activist. She was the youngest and first woman to receive a British House of Commons Shield; she has had 7 Grammy Awards nominations and was th ...

. The editorial team comprised journalists, critics and writers hailing from ''

BBC Music Magazine ''BBC Music Magazine'' is a British monthly magazine that focuses primarily on classical music. History The first issue appeared in September 1992. BBC Worldwide, the commercial subsidiary of the BBC was the original owner and publisher toge ...

'',

The Arts Desk ''The Arts Desk'' (theartsdesk.com) is a British arts journalism website containing reviews, interviews, news, and other content related to music, theatre, television, films, and other art forms written by journalists from a variety of traditio ...

BBC Radio 3 BBC Radio 3 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It replaced the BBC Third Programme in 1967 and broadcasts classical music and opera, with jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also featuring. The st ...

, ''

Gramophone A phonograph, in its later forms also called a gramophone (as a trademark since 1887, as a generic name in the UK since 1910) or since the 1940s called a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogu ...

'' and ''

The Observer ''The Observer'' is a British newspaper Sunday editions, published on Sundays. It is a sister paper to ''The Guardian'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', whose parent company Guardian Media Group, Guardian Media Group Limited acquired it in 1993. ...

'', including

Fiona Maddocks Fiona Maddocks is a British music critic and author who specializes in classical music. Described as "one of the UK's leading writers and commentators on classical music", Maddocks has been chief music critic of ''The Observer'' since 2010. Sh ...

and Alexandra Coghlan. Regular contributors included

Norman Lebrecht Norman Lebrecht (born 11 July 1948) is a British music journalist and author who specializes in classical music. He is best known as the owner of the classical music blog, ''Slipped Disc'', where he frequently publishes articles. Unlike other ...

Paul Morley Paul Robert Morley is an English music journalist. He wrote for the ''New Musical Express'' from 1977 to 1983 and has since written for a wide range of publications as well as writing his own books. He was a co-founder of the record label ZTT R ...

, Kimon Daltas,

Jessica Duchen Jessica Duchen is a British music writer, novelist, playwright and opera librettist. Life Born in London, Duchen studied music at Cambridge University. She was a classical music correspondent for the ''The Independent'' for 12 years. She has writt ...

, Harriet Smith, Gavin Dixon and Colin Anderson.

Criticism

Concern was voiced that Sinfini, funded by Universal Music, lacked critical independence. The blogger Opera Creep commented "Most importantly the funding status or any mention to Universal has been removed from the About section on the site. A new visitor to it would possibly mistake it for an independent voice “cutting through classical” but I am afraid that fig leaf can't quite hide the fact that Universal bankroll them at the tune of millions." Other concerns raised have included the suggestion that Lebrecht was invited on board to silence his criticisms, while the music critic Igor Toronyi-Lalic has written of Sinfini's "ingratiating tweeness".

Closure

Sinfini's closure was announced on 17 December 2015. The site has ceased commissioning new material; existing material will remain online as part of the English-language component of the Deutsche Grammophon site.{{cite web , url=http://www.classicalmusicmagazine.org/2015/12/universal-musics-sinfini-website-to-be-wound-down/ , title=Universal Music's Sinfini website to be wound-down , work=

Classical Music magazine ''Classical Music'' is a trade magazine for the classical music industry. It co-sponsors the annual ABO/ Rhinegold Awards for backstage work in music, held for the first time in January 2012 - and has a network of correspondents worldwide. It ...

, date=2015-12-16 , accessdate=2015-12-18

References

{{reflist * Norman Lebrecht
"Classical music media will never look the same again"
(November 2012)

External links

* {{Official website, http://sinfinimusic.com/ {{Authority control Universal Music Group British music websites Classical music record labels