FRANKLIN, TN and LONDON--(Marketwire - February 9, 2011) - On February 22, Naxos of America (http://blog.naxosusa.com) will begin distribution of ICA Classics (http://www.icartists.co.uk/), formerly known as Van Walsum Management. Founded over 35 years ago, ICA Classics was the first artist management agency to launch its own audio and audiovisual label featuring both archive material as well as the agency's own artists. The CDs and DVDs on the new ICA Classics label represent material recorded between 1954 and 2009 by many of the world's most prominent classical music artists.
Stephen Wright, Chairman and Head of Artist Management, explains: "The agency now has a name which conveys our worldwide scope and what we do: bringing every aspect of artists' careers under one roof, presenting them to the public through live concerts and tours and a full range of media, such as CD, TV, DVD and live Internet streaming."
Based in Waterloo, London, Van Walsum has won a number of awards for innovation, through enterprising projects such as the worldwide Ligeti "Clocks and Clouds" and Magnus Lindberg's "Related Rocks." The first releases under the new ICA Classics label will include the Legacy series, using archive material from sources such as the BBC, WDR in Cologne and the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Live series, featuring performances from the agency's own artists recorded in prestigious venues around the world. The Legacy series includes Maria Callas' legendary 1958 performance of "La traviata" and Charles Munch leading the Boston Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Debussy's "La Mer" in the same year.
Headquartered in Franklin, Tennessee, a suburb of Nashville, Naxos of America is the #1 independent classical music distributor in the U.S. Specializing in state-of-the-art distribution, marketing and promotion, Naxos of America distributes nearly 20,000 SKUs to traditional brick and mortar retail, as well as offering a comprehensive suite of services tailored to consumer direct fulfillment. Naxos of America is also the largest digital distributor of independent classical music, supplying a catalog of over 25,000 albums to hundreds of digital download and mobile outlets worldwide. Naxos of America offers marketing, e-marketing, publicity, e-publicity, physical and digital e-commerce services, licensing opportunities, streaming services, sales and customer service for all new releases and active catalog titles of Naxos Records and more than 100 distributed labels.
Contact Information:
Kelly Rach
Publicist
Naxos of America
615-465-3806