The mission of the Classical Recording Foundation is to provide great performing artists and composers with an opportunity to record, release, and promote new classical recordings in a manner that captures ideal performances that define our era, by providing established artists with awards and new artists with grants. 

Recent Classical Recording Foundation award recipients continue to receive accolades and success. Pianist Soyeon Kate Lee, CRF Young Artist of the Year in 2009, won the 2010 Naumburg International Piano Competition. 2010 Young Artists of the Year Natasha Paremski and Orion Weiss have also received esteemed recognition: Paremski played a month-long tour with Gideon Kremer and Orion Weiss was called to substitute for Leon Fleisher at Tanglewood. Paremski’s new album also garnered the distinction of rising to No. 9 on the Billboard Classical Chart within two weeks of its release. Pianist Simone Dinnerstein, who was honored in 2006 and 2007, received the prestigious Diapason D’or Award for her Bach Goldberg Variations recording and in 2011 signed an exclusive recording agreement with Sony. Cellist Zuill Bailey, also honored in 2006 and 2007, joined the Telarc label and has since released an acclaimed recording of Bach’s solo cello works as well as a recording of the Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich Cello Concerti (supported by CRF) with the San Francisco Ballet Orchestra. CRF’s Composer of the Year for 2008, Justin Dello Joio, has been commissioned to write a piano concerto for Garrick Ohlsson. CRF, in collaboration with Bridge records, received its first Latin Grammy Nomination for Best Contemporary Composition for Barcelonazo, music for orchestra by Jorge Liderman. The Foundation was fortunate to receive a Copland Grant that provided partial funding of this recording. In 2008, CRF was awarded three Aaron Copland Grants, an Argosy Grant, and received continued support from the National Endowment for the Arts for its work on a new DVD release about eminent American composer George Crumb. In addition, CRF has begun to help in the restoration of the landmark live recordings from the archives of the Library of Congress by supporting Bridge Records in that effort. 2006 marked the first year of a Library of Congress collaboration with a remarkable disc featuring Samuel Barber and Leontyne Price, which garnered a Billboard “Top 10 of the Year” distinction.

Other artists who have benefited from CRF’s support in previous years include Philip Lasser, Bridget Kibbey, Barbara Govato, Marcantonio Barone, Gerald Ranck, the Kalichstein-Laredo-Robinson Trio, the Kalish-Krosnick Duo, St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble, Anne-Marie McDermott, Benita Valente, The Juilliard String Quartet, Andres Díaz, Judith Gordon, George Crumb, the Harmonie Ensemble, Paul Moravec, Inon Barnatan, Stephen Jaffe, Benjamin Verdery, Giora Schmidt, Rohan De Silva, Simone Dinnerstein, Zuill Bailey, The Daedalus String Quartet, Michael Harrison, Vassily Primakov, Justin Dello Joio, and Richard Wernick.

CRF does not benefit from record sales or royalties, and depends entirely on support from generous individuals and corporations, as well as merit-based grants from public and private sources.