Virgin Classics was a record label founded in 1988 as part of Richard Branson's

Virgin Records Virgin Records is a record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British independent record label in 1972 by entrepreneurs Richard Branson, Simon Draper, Nik Powell, and musician Tom Newman. It grew to be a worldw ...

. The unit, along with

EMI Classics EMI Classics was a record label founded by Thorn EMI in 1990 to reduce the need to create country-specific packaging and catalogues for internationally distributed European classical music, classical music releases. After Thorn EMI demerged ...

, was acquired by

Universal Music 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 ...

in 2012 as part of the takeover of the

EMI Group EMI Group Limited (originally an initialism for Electric and Musical Industries, also referred to as EMI Records Ltd. or simply EMI) was a British transnational conglomerate founded in March 1931 in London. At the time of its break-up in 2012, ...

, however the terms of the

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body ...

's September 2012 approval of the takeover requires divestment of the classical labels which were sold on 7 February 2013 to

Warner Music Group Warner Music Group Corp. (trade name, d.b.a. Warner Music Group, commonly abbreviated as WMG) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational entertainment and record label Conglomerate (company), conglomerate headquartered in New York C ...

. The

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

approved the deal in May 2013. Warner Music's Warner Classics unit absorbed the Virgin Classics artists roster and catalogue into Erato Records but lost the rights to use either EMI or Virgin names.

Principal artists

* Piotr Anderszewski * Leif Ove Andsnes *

Nicholas Angelich Nicholas Michael Angelich (December 14, 1970 – April 18, 2022) was an American pianist. He was noted for performing internationally with ensembles from Europe and North America. Early life Angelich was born in Cincinnati, Ohio, on December 14 ...

* Fabio Biondi *

Gautier Capuçon With Jean-Claude Casadesus Gautier Capuçon (born 3 September 1981) is a French cellist. Biography Gautier Capuçon was born in Chambéry, Savoie, the youngest of three siblings. His brother is the violinist Renaud Capuçon. He started learn ...

Renaud Capuçon Renaud Capuçon (born 27 January 1976) is a French classical violinist. Since late 2016 he has been teaching at the Royal Northern College of Music. Biography Capuçon was born in Chambéry on 27 January 1976. He entered the conservatory in ...

* Max Emanuel Cencic * William Christie * Hughes de Courson *

Alan Curtis (conductor) Alan Curtis (November 17, 1934July 15, 2015) was an American harpsichordist, musicologist, and conductor of baroque opera. Born in Mason, Michigan, Curtis graduated from studies at the University of Illinois, and received his PhD in 1960 with a ...

* Diana Damrau * David Daniels * Natalie Dessay *

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 ...

* David Fray * Vivica Genaux * Véronique Gens * Emmanuelle Haïm * Daniel Harding * Philippe Jaroussky * Paavo Järvi * Truls Mørk *

Roger Norrington Sir Roger Arthur Carver Norrington (born 16 March 1934) is an English conductor. He is known for historically informed performances of Baroque, Classical and Romantic music. In November 2021 Norrington announced his retirement. Life Norr ...

* Artemis Quartet *

Quatuor Ebène In music, a quartet or quartette (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers; or a musical composition for four voices and instruments. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations o ...

* Christina Pluhar * Valeriy Sokolov * Christian Tetzlaff * Alexandre Tharaud * Rolando Villazón (early recordings)

References

{{Authority control Classical music record labels EMI French record labels Record labels established in 1988 Record labels disestablished in 2013