Telarc International Corporation is an American audiophile

independent record label An independent record label (or indie label) is a record label that operates without the funding or distribution of major record labels; they are a type of small and medium-sized enterprise, small- to medium-sized enterprise, or SME. The labels ...

founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Based in

Cleveland Cleveland is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located along the southern shore of Lake Erie, it is situated across the Canada–U.S. maritime border and approximately west of the Ohio-Pennsylvania st ...

Ohio Ohio ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Erie to the north, Pennsylvania to the east, West Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Indiana to the ...

, the label has had a long association with the

Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its primary concert venue is Music Hall. In addition to its symphony concerts, the orchestra gives pops concerts as the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. The Cinc ...

and the

Cleveland Orchestra The Cleveland Orchestra is an American orchestra based in Cleveland, Ohio. Founded in 1918 by the pianist and impresario Adella Prentiss Hughes, the orchestra is one of the five American orchestras informally referred to as the " Big Five". T ...

, as well as with the

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra The Atlanta Symphony Orchestra (ASO) is an American orchestra based in Atlanta, Georgia, United States. The ASO's main concert venue is Atlanta Symphony Hall in the Woodruff Arts Center. History Though earlier organizations bearing the sam ...

and the

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra (SLSO) is an American symphony orchestra based in St. Louis, Missouri. Founded in 1880 by Joseph Otten as the St. Louis Choral Society, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra is the second-oldest professional symphony or ...

. Although it started as a classical music label, Telarc has released

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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

and

country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...

recordings. In 1996, Telarc merged with another independent label, Heads Up, which is now a subsidiary of Telarc. In late 2005, both Telarc and Heads Up were bought by

Concord Records Concord Records is an American record label owned by Concord and based in Los Angeles, California. Concord Records was launched in 1995 as an imprint designed to reach beyond the company's foundational Concord Jazz label. The label's artists ha ...

. Today, both labels operate as semi-autonomous units in the

Concord Music Group Concord Music Group was an American independent music company based in Beverly Hills, California, with worldwide (including the U.S.) distribution through Universal Music Group. The company specialized in recordings and music publishing. On Apri ...

The Telarc Sound

Telarc is noted for the high quality of its recordings, encapsulated in the slogan "The Telarc Sound". Its 1979 high-definition digital recording of Tchaikovsky's

1812 Overture ''The Year 1812, Solemn Overture'', Op. 49, popularly known as the ''1812 Overture'', is a concert overture in E major written in 1880 by Russian composer Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The piece commemorates Russia's successful defense against the ...

(the first ever) became a popular way for people to test the quality of their record-playing equipment and audio setups, as only high-quality and properly-tuned systems could play the hi-fi digital cannon shots properly. The record ultimately became their best-selling ever and established them as a company. Its

audio engineer An audio engineer (also known as a sound engineer or recording engineer) helps to produce a recording or a live performance, balancing and adjusting sound sources using equalization, dynamics processing and audio effects, mixing, reproduc ...

s are highly regarded in the recording business and have led Telarc to over 50 Grammy Awards on its label and two others it distributes, Heads Up and MCG. In 2004, it received the "Label of the Year" award from ''

Gramophone A phonograph, later called a gramophone, and since the 1940s a record player, or more recently a turntable, is a device for the mechanical and analogue reproduction of sound. The sound vibration waveforms are recorded as corresponding physic ...

'' magazine. Telarc was one of the first labels to record music with a 20-bit

analogue-to-digital converter In electronics, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC, A/D, or A-to-D) is a system that converts an analog signal, such as a sound picked up by a microphone or light entering a digital camera, into a digital signal. An ADC may also provide ...

(ADC) in the late 1980s and has used 24-bit formats since 1996.

Staff reduction

In February 2009, due to corporate restructuring at Concord Music Group, Telarc announced it would cut twenty-six jobs and that it would also stop producing its recordings. These job cuts included the highly regarded, multi-award-winning production team. Telarc's founder and former president, Robert Woods resigned in March 2009 and was replaced by Heads Up president Dave Love. Love was let go the following month. Five/Four Productions was formed by four members of the Telarc production team: Grammy award-winning engineers Michael Bishop and Robert Friedrich, Grammy award-winning producer Thomas Moore, and chief technician Bill McKinney.

Keeping the Blues Alive Award

In 2013, the

Blues Foundation The Blues Foundation is an American nonprofit corporation, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee, that is affiliated with more than 175 blues organizations from various parts of the world. Founded in 1980, a 25-person board of directors governs t ...

honored Telarc with its 2013 Keeping the Blues Alive (KBA) Award. The KBA ceremony was held in conjunction with the 29th International Blues Challenge (IBC).

References

External links

Official site
{{Authority control Record labels established in 1977 Audiophile record labels Classical music record labels American independent record labels American jazz record labels Companies based in Cleveland Concord Music Group Music of Cleveland 1977 establishments in Ohio