"Trusler is an apostle of commercial savvy in the arts ... And now Trusler's own record label, Orchid, shows the way for classical artists after the giant companies' economic turbulence ...... the Orchid label holds plenty of surprises yet." (Time Out, Dec 2006)
2009 was an important year for Orchid, with many exciting new partnerships beginning. The label relaunched in the Autumn, with a new international distribution deal under Naxos/Select, and four new titles.
We are delighted to be working with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's label, RPO Records, in a deal which sees us bring their albums to the shops for the first time; with Albion Media, the leading company for PR in the arts, with whom we will now be working on each of our new releases, and with Pawlina Bednarczyk, formerly head of A&R for ASV/Sanctuary and now manager of Arts-Wise, a company specialising in Project Management within the Arts, who has become general manager of Orchid Classics. In addition, James Brown, managing director of Hazard Chase Management, has assumed the role of Chairman of the company.
For more information about Orchid visit the Orchid Music and the Orchid Classics websites
TYCOON AND TUNESMITH TRUSLER
Time Out London, Dec 13-20 2006
'It's the most exciting thing to be an artist-entrepreneur.' Matthew Trusler talking; Trusler the academic lecturer on playing period music on modern instruments, Trusler the acclaimed violinist, Trusler the recording magnate - that Trusler.
In a profession percieved as ethereal, even precious, Trusler provides a blast of bracing twenty-first century air. His 1747 Guadagnini [now a 1711 Stradivarius] is owned by investors in a share-owning scheme that also provided Kennedy's first Strad, Natalie Klein's cello and Lawrence Power's viola, enlightened capitalism meeting art. And now Trusler's own record label, shows the way for classical artists after the giant companies' economic turbulence.
'In the next decade we'll see everyone doing it. It's not easy - not just popping up on a website and selling out of a shed. I wanted distribution, people to buy it in HMV...' Amazingly he managed this with his first project. 'The Pity of War', a WW1 anthology of music and readings with actor Sam West. 'If it hadn't ended up in shops, I would have sold 30 on the web. I'd have thought: Oh Christ, I'm barking up the wrong tree.'
Trusler's an apostle of commercial savvy in the arts. 'A friend of mine asked how could "music" and "business" exist in the same sentence - you can't put it in a paper bag and sell it. But you have to think of it as a business otherwise you'll end up playing to yourself... Businessmen get lampooned for running businesses' he observes sardonically. 'And woe betide an arts organisation that makes money!'
The new label's 'project-based' character has 'kind of appeared'. 'The Pity of War' has been succeeded by two appealing releases, each with a theme. 'Blues' is jazz-inspired classical music with Trusler partnered by Wayne Marshall at the piano - ideally experienced for this range and not just a discreet accompanist? 'That's the understatement! He's exhausting to be around. He makes me feel a lot younger' - Trusler is 30. 'The sessions were unlike any recordings I'd done. He does Gershwin so well - he is Gershwin.' Also featured: Joplin, Ravel, Debussy and American George Antheil, the 'bad boy of classical music' who could prompt such audience hostility that he packed a revolver (or was he just pleased to see them?). An adopted Parisian, Antheil provides a link to the third release, 'Paris', the milieu of Picasso, Cocteau, Gertrude Stein, Dali... Here Trusler gracefully makes way for the young German fiddler Maya Koch, 'my wife - a coincidence, believe it or not, in a project we originally thought up for another label.' The new CD evokes 'a place and time' when the arts were meeting: Cocteau rewrote Greek myths, Diaghilev reinvented ballet, Stravinsky composed tangos. This leads to Trusler's fantasy as 'an obsessive movie-watcher': an 'all-senses' form of recording - 'I'd love to include pictures and make it as multi-dimensional as possible. I want records that make you laugh, cry, shout, scream in fright...'
In case you wondered, Trusler's conventional concert career is internationally successful. When we talk he's heading off to Mexico with the Philharmonia. Despite sounding unlike any other classical artist I've interviewed, he's superb at that as well; but you feel that the Orchid label holds plenty of surprises yet. 'It won't make my fortune - that's not what I did it for.' I wouldn't put anything past thoroughly modern Matthew.
Martin Hoyle
