Carol Greenley—the Brio in Con Brio

by Jerry Dubins

from Fanfare Magazine - March/April 2009

Even in the best of times, the classical recording business can face daunting challenges. And these past few years have been anything but the best of times. We’ve seen once-major labels vacate longstanding artist contracts and merge under the umbrella of global consortiums, smaller independents cut back on the number of their releases or fold altogether, and a growing trend—welcomed by some—to reduce the costs associated with studio productions by setting up shop and recording live in concert and recital venues.

Through it all, however, there always has been, and probably will always be, a niche market for the small, specialist company that caters to the collector with an interest in unusual repertoire and uncompromising excellence in performance and recording. For that collector—and among Fanfare’s readers there are undoubtedly many—husband and wife team Ed Hollcraft and Carol Greenley founded Con Brio Records, a company they operate out of their remodeled home in Pleasant Hill, California.

The couple met as music students at Oakland’s Mills College, where Darius Milhaud once taught composition from 1941 to 1971. Both Ed and Carol played professionally—he the clarinet, she the piano. With their many years and musical connections in the Bay Area, it comes as little surprise that Con Brio’s roster of artists features many top-drawer musicians drawn from local orchestras and ensembles—for example, violinist Mark Volkert and violist Geraldine Walther, previously with the San Francisco Symphony, now with the Takács String Quartet.

State-of-the-art can mean different things to different folks. To some, a recording isn’t state-of-the-art unless it was made using the latest, most advanced, and most expensive technology available, and unless it is offered in surround-sound format. To others, state-of-the-art can mean a recording produced with handcrafted care on equipment selected and fine-tuned to capture a specific performance under optimal conditions. Con Brio would not live up to the expectations of the former state-of-the-art constituency. Hollcraft, who serves as the company’s chief recording engineer, seeks a natural sound—one that is not overly bright—using a combination of digital and analog equipment to produce eight-channel recordings, compared to the 24 channel capacity of most commercial studios. Equally important is the acoustic setting, critical for the solo and small chamber-ensemble repertoire Hollcraft and Greenley have so far made the staple of their label. In designing their in-home studio, they took care to insure that the walls were not parallel and that there were no reflections in the sound.

Greenley’s role in the family enterprise is that of backup engineer and graphics designer. In addition to creating the CD covers and overseeing the production end of the business, she also maintains the company’s Web site, www.conbriorecordings.com. I spoke with her briefly about the company’s current catalog, how things are going in these tough economic times, and what she foresees for the company’s future.

At present count, your Web site lists 25 titles, covering a wide range of what is generally and generically referred to as “classical” music. One of those offerings, Richard Arnell’s Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, I had the pleasure of reviewing for the final issue in 2008 (32:2), and what wonderful scores they are. But alongside major works by Bach, Schubert, Ravel, Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Brahms, Fauré, Ernst Bacon, and David Diamond, there are also a handful of bonbon recital discs, (i.e., collections of short encore pieces and smorgasbords of a little of this and a little of that), plus some jazz and train sounds CDs. Would you call Con Brio an eclectic label?

“No, I think we have zeroed in on a fairly specialized group of artists. Since we specialize in classical, I would think that that alone would eliminate us from any comprehensive list of eclectic labels. We have a decent group of old masters, some of which have attracted very nice reviews, but the unusual CDs are the easiest to get reviewed. The bonbons are very salable and the artists sell them quite readily at their concerts. I separate the jazz from our classical, however; each of our CDs classified as jazz is from a highly skilled, highly practiced pianist who has stepped over what I think is a boundary that clarifies the style rather than separating it from classical. The train CDs started out as a lark that Ed luckily indulged in. He is a skilled engineer that can get a wonderful sound from his portable recorders, and found recording train sounds a tremendous challenge that caught the interest of the owner of a model train store. He was encouraged to develop the series of CDs, and they have sold very well. He has put together a story with each CD that makes them very different from sound-effect CDs and seems to have a universal appeal to listeners. He garnered his own favorable review from Michael Laskow in Recording Magazine: ‘Ed has become my new hero for submitting a real one-of-a-kind tape. . . . [He] has done a great job of capturing clean, clear, stereo trains of all varieties. . . . This is a first-rate recording.’”

I note that not all of your recordings were produced on your home turf. The Brahms and Fauré violin sonatas with James Greening-Valenzuela and Madeleine DeMory Hsu, for example, were recorded in the Morrison Recital Hall at Boise State University in 1997. Does this date back to before Con Brio was founded, and were some of the recordings that appear under your label licensed from other sources?

“Yes, the Fauré/Brahms, as well as several other CDs in our catalog, were recorded before Con Brio was established. We rarely have the opportunity to work with our artists on this stage of their project. Many times they submit a finished CD for our consideration. It is much more practical for them to find a recording venue where they are. We are capable of editing and mastering if necessary.”

Being originally from San Francisco myself, I know how musically bounteous the Bay Area is. How do you go about lining up artists for your projects? Do you decide on repertoire you want to add to your catalog, and then seek out players interested in the proposed works? Or do you reach out to artists you know and give them carte blanche to record what interests them?

“At first, we wanted to mine what the Bay Area had to offer and produced our first three projects with James Greening-Valenzuela (who has since moved his huge talent and residence to New York), the Volkert-Walther String Trio, and Aileen Chanco. Since then, we have received inquiries from all over the world from wonderful artists who need our services. The artists who present a program of music that is not only appealing to the listener but also unusual in nature get our attention. The artists themselves are perfectly capable of choosing interesting repertoire for themselves, especially given some guidelines from us. Even the most experienced, well-traveled artists are sometimes too busy to research new composers and styles, which I can help with, but most of them are their own best resource for great new music for their instrument.”

Most of us, I think, have been affected to one degree or another by the downturn in the economy and the global recession. I can’t imagine that it hasn’t impacted the record industry in general and smaller companies like Con Brio in particular. How have you been coping? Is there a niche market for your products that has been more or less recession proof?

“Yes, the niche is that artists need a good value, not just cheap prices. We are not bottom-line driven. Internet sites have literally billions of CDs for sale, so the real value is in our distribution and publicity services; they give the artist exposure and reviews. I am also working on being able to submit program notes and CD art for downloading along with the audio part of the CD. I have made all of this information available on the artists’ pages on our site, but people do not take the time and trouble to look all of this up. I would like to have it right there on the download site. Audiences can still afford to attend live concerts and buy CDs. The economy has forced us to rethink the quantities of physical CDs we produce, mainly because of the convenience and popularity of downloads. Think about it; there is no plastic, no shipping, no packaging, and no waiting for a download. People in Portugal hear Stephen Reck; people in Korea have the Icicle Creek Piano Trio CD.”

When the economic climate improves—and eventually it will—do you have plans to extend Con Brio’s repertoire beyond Arnell to more large-scale orchestral and concerted works? Obviously, symphonic repertoire—like the Arnell, which was performed by the MusicaNova Orchestra and recorded in Tempe, Arizona—cannot be recorded in your Pleasant Hill in-home studio. So, what’s involved in your going on the road for these bigger productions?

“We don’t record on location any more. We are anxious, though, to expand to include more orchestral recordings, and there is no doubt that composers of today can write for large groups, but getting good recording is beastly hard. Outside funding seems to be the best way for a group to finance recording of orchestral repertoire.”

What are your and Ed’s future plans for Con Brio, both on the short-term calendar (remainder of 2009) of new recordings, and on the longer-term calendar (say, your five-year plan) for the company?

“Short term, we have two wonderful and unique CDs in production: Temirzhan Yerzhanov’s CD of piano transcriptions of the works of Prokofiev, which includes a world-premiere recording of the composer’s rendition of his “Classical” Symphony; and a CD from Montage Society titled “Starry Night Project” of new composers’ music (all but one piece is a world-premiere recording) based on the paintings of well-known visual artists (Georgia O’Keeffe, Breughel, Degas, Seurat, Rivers, Gauguin, and Van Gogh). Long term, we will keep encouraging our artists to get out there and play live concerts and record CDs. Both are vital to their careers. We also know the importance of following technology (the music industry changes too readily to be able to predict what we will be doing in five years) to keep our products available to the buyer and listener. Whether it is electronic distribution, or physical print, or plastic CDs that go out of use, we will keep up with the needs of the artist as well as the listener.”

The business you’re in provides such an interesting intersection, on the one hand between music and the composers and artists engaged in its making, and on the other, the practical realities faced by everyone in the food chain, so to speak, of realizing it as an end product, whether live or on record. It really becomes a kind of social contract, doesn’t it?

“Thinking about this starts up my ‘classical music is different from other music’ engine. The good thing about classical music is that there is a long-established standard; the bad thing about classical music is that there is a long-established standard. Artists of today are competing with artists who started recording in the 1920s, and listeners are enjoying the fruits of their backbreaking labors and comparing them to dead people. Anyone who has achieved the technique, expressiveness, and tenacity to acquire a fundamental fan base or modicum of professional contacts and respect in the classical music community has worked his/her tail off. In my opinion, classical musicians deserve more than other musicians. In fact, the term music is very confusing. Rap music, rock music, folk music, pop music, heavy metal music, is not the same as classical music. Pop, rap, rock, etc., is entertainment; classical is an art form funneled from the composer, through the performer, to the listener. Classical musicians are the best people in the world to work with and for. They are born with a magnificent gift that they are willing to share with the world for comparatively tiny monetary rewards. They deserve so much more than the Britneys and 50 Cents who generate so much money and attention in the music industry. All they ask is for appreciation, recognition, respect, and that is what I love to heap on them.

“Every generation reaches the age at which it feels that the world has gone completely to hell. Our grandparents were horrified by the use of mustard gas and hand grenades on fellow humans; our parents were horrified by the televised pictures of the Vietnam war and the collapse of the traditional family; I am horrified by the broadcast of beheadings of kidnap victims accessible by any man, woman, or child capable of getting on the Internet, and by the wholesale hemorrhaging of taxpayers’ money to forgive the greed of a few MBAs in the finance industry. Classical music, to me, is a paradise that I can visit almost at will. I never tire of the old masters. I have five CDs of Brahms’s Piano Sonata No. 3 played by five different pianists, and each one is a unique experience. I consider spending an afternoon listening to the slow movements by all five pianists one after another an exhilarating experience. Listening to several Mahler symphonies in a row is a piece of heaven. But still, there is nothing like a live concert. The development of good listening skills takes decades. Listening to classical music requires attention to many aspects of a performance—technique, intonation, ensemble, and phrasing. Along with age comes the ability to determine if ego is mixed in, if the performer is taking his technique to the limit to prove that he is really good, or if he still has some leeway, if the performer is distorting a slow tempo to be different or if he really can sustain the musical idea he has.

“As label owner, I must keep in mind that technology has surpassed the ordinary classical music listener, because playback systems will never reproduce the quality of sound found on even the 16/44.1 CD. You can play your favorite CD on the best sound system affordable, but it will never fool you into thinking that a live performer is in the room. (This is another reason to indulge in the fabulous experience of live concerts.) We must mix and master knowing that playback systems are a poor substitute for human ears. We also know that most people will do the bulk of their listening in their cars and through their iPods, so we audition every master on boom boxes and mini-systems as well as our studio monitoring system. We both spent many years on stage, and feel that we understand what the musician wants and needs to quite an extent. To be successful in the classical music business, you must straddle that fine line between making money and loving what you do. Without the love, there is no success regardless of your specific field of expertise; without the money, you can’t stay experienced enough to keep up. As we hone our skills, we are attracting more and better musicians; and we are delighted to accommodate them. The best part of this business is getting the ‘Wow!’ e-mail from some fantastic artist.”

This article originally appeared in Issue 32:4 (Mar/Apr 2009) of Fanfare Magazine.

The following are articles about Hollcraft Studios - for reviews of CDs, go back to the catalogue and click on the CD image.

Go to Hollcraft Studios website

Contra Costa Times - Time Out

Pleasant Hill Studio captures classical sound

by Georgia Rowe

When it comes time to make recordings, many of the Bay Area's classical artists head for state-of-the-art studios. some, however, opt for facilities that are not so high-tech — but provide quality sound at a reasonable price.

That's where Ed Hollcraft and Carol Greenley come in. The Husband-and-wife owners of Con Brio Recordings specialize in classical music, and their no-frills approach is an appealing alternative for musicians who find the high cost of commercial studios prohibitive.

Working in a small space converted from a former den in their Pleasant Hill home, Hollcraft and Greenley are building a loyal following among Bay Area musicians. In the year since they founded Con Brio, they've produced CDs for artists including violinist James Greening-Valenzuela and pianist Julian White. A recent recording of the Volkert-Walther String Trio (featuring San Francisco Symphony violinist Mark Volkert and violist Geraldine Walther) is in the final stages of production.

Hollcraft and Greenley are both professional musicians and music teachers — he's a clarinetist, she's a pianist — and on a recent visit to their studio in a quiet, tree-lined neighborhood, they said their work in recording grew naturally out of their associations in the Bay Area music scene.

The couple met at Mills College. Both were music students, although Ed — a freelance musician who had played with the Oakland, San Jose, and Marin symphonies — was also taking classes in the school's electronic studio. "We were recording things like lawnmowers and chain saws, combining the sounds and turning them into soundscapes," he says. "I started learning a lot about microphone, processing, and multi-tracking."

After he and Carol moved to Pleasant Hill in 1980, he found himself acting as engineer for selected friends, making impromptu recordings in his living room.

A few years ago, Hollcraft and Greenley decided to get serious about recording. They remodeled their home, turning a high-ceilinged back room into a performing space. With the addition of a sound booth, Con Brio was born.

Since then, they've recorded solo violinist, vocalists with piano accompaniment, flute-and-harpsichord duos and chamber groups — all acoustic artists seeking ambient sound of the concert hall.

Hollcraft allows the Con Brio isn't state-of-the-art. Employing a combination of digital and analog gear, he produced eight-channel recordings; most commercial studios have the capacity for at least 24 channels. But Hollcraft says more would be overkill for the artists he serves. Nor does he use the kinds of effects common in pop music: He says that classical musicians don't want them anyway.

"They want natural sound," he says. "I try to tailor it to the instruments, so it's not too strident or too bright."

The shape of the performance room is a defining factor in the studio's sound, he adds. "We made sure the walls aren't parallel, so it's a nice-sounding room, with no reflections in the sound," he says. "The musicians all say it's a great room to play in."

Greenley is the studio's second engineer and graphics designer. She creates the CD covers and maintains the label's Web site, which is the primary outlet for the recordings. CDs are available locally at Walnut Creek's Countrywood Music and C&L Music in Concord.

Con Brio hasn't made a lot of money yet, but she says the work is a labor of love. "A career in performing, especially classical music, is a very difficult thing," notes Greenley.

"The artists we're recording have worked hard to get where they are, and we've committed ourselves to help them move forward. Our goal is just to do a good job for them. If we make them look good, it makes us look good, too."

Hollcraft and Greenley say that when it comes to classical music, smaller is definitely better. By keeping costs down, they are able to produce quality recordings that up-and-coming artists can afford.

"We're not Skywalker Sound," says Ed.

"No we're not," says Carol. "But we can get the job done."

To learn more about Con Brio Studios, visit www.conbriorecordings.com.

Contra Costa Times

Pleasant Hill - Martinez record

Couple make classical music together

by Brandy Underwood

Pleasant Hill residents opened their recording studio and started label one year ago

Carol Greenley and Ed Hollcraft love music and run a recording studio.

Some things about their business make it stand out - the studio is in their home in Pleasant Hill; they focus on classical music; and they started their own classical label about a year ago.

The couple said they want to spend the rest of their lives surrounded by musicians, and this was the best way they knew to do that.

"I just can't give up music because it's too much a part of me," said Hollcraft.

The couple's label is called Con Brio, which means "with brilliance." The phrase is found at the beginning of some classical music pieces and it tells musicians the piece shoud be played vibrantly, Greenley said.

That vibrancy is something she sees in the classical field, too.

"Everyone keeps saying classical music is dead, and I just don't believe it," she said.

Greenley met her husband at Mills College many years ago when they were earning their masters degrees in fine arts. They were both professional classical musicians for about five years and also formed a group called the "Columbia Chamber Players."

Hollcraft, a clarinetist, also worked as a freelance musician in symphonies in areas including San Jose, Berkeley and Marin. Greenley plays the piano.

They later changed careers and started Hollcraft Studios, the name of their home recording studio. It was a photography studio for about 11 years, specializing in wedding photos. But now it boasts a 9[foot, concert-size grand piano.

Con Brio Recordings currently has eight artists, and the couple said they are constantly searching for new artists. They are most interested in signing experienced musicians. In addition, some musicians also pay to use the facility to complete independent projects, and prospective college students have used the facility to make demo tapes.

"We look for someone active and out there playing," Greenley said. "It's hard for first-time artists to record - the microphone is a real critical audience."

The Bay Area artists on the label include violinist James Greening-Valenzuela, and the Mark Volkert-Walther Trio, which consists of Mark Volkert, the assistant concert master of the San Francisco Symphony; his wife, Jan Volkert, a cellist in the Marin Symphony; and Geraldine Walther, a viola player for the San Francisco Symphony.

"(The music label) keeps us actively involved in music and it keeps us alive," Hollcraft said.

For information about the label, check the Web site at www.conbriorecordings.com; see Hollcraft Studios website for information about the studio.