BLUE GRIFFIN

Blue Griffin Recording is an independent recording label and a full service recording company for classical musicians.  
Since its birth in 2000, Blue Griffin rose from a small recording company into an internationally recognized label with almost 300 titles in its catalog and the artist roster that spans the Americas, Europe, Africa and Asia. 
CDs recorded and produced by Blue Griffin are distributed by Albany, one of the world’s top 5 distributors of classical music, and available for sale everywhere CDs are sold, including Amazon.com, CD Universe, H&B Direct, ArkivMusic and most of the other online retailers, as well as Barnes & Noble and other book and music stores. 
The digital distribution is handled by The Orchard, the world’s leader in digital music services, which assures the availability of our recordings on iTunes, Apple Music, Rhapsody, YouTube Music, Spotify, Pandora and virtually all other outlets around the world.
Blue Griffin has been praised as “high quality young label” by Gramophone Magazine and as a “consistent stream of exceptionally enjoyable recordings” by American Record Guide. Many of our productions have been favorably reviewed by national and international publications such as American Record Guide, Fanfare Magazine, Gramophone, BBC Music, International Record Review, Flute World, Clarinet Magazine, Strad, Clavier, Percussion and Strings Magazine among many others.
Each year major releases on Blue Griffin are submitted to the entry list to be considered for the GRAMMY nominations.

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PRESS ABOUT BLUE GRIFFIN

  • "…high quality young label…" Gramophone Magazine (UK)

  • “Kvitko has built a record company renowned for many fine things. He provides a unique experience for the artists with whom he works: refined musical ears, a rich and vibrant quality of recording production and an integrity of engineering that is increasingly hard to come by these days.” The Whole Note

  • "...a consistent stream of exceptionally enjoyable recordings." American Record Guide

  • "[Blue Griffin] recordings have been widely praised for their rich and natural sound as result of Kvitko’s perfectionist engineering standards." Fanfare Magazine

  • "The lifelike, vibrant engineering typifies Blue Griffin's usual high sonic standards." Classics Today

  • "Not incidentally, the recorded sound is terrific, courtesy of Blue Griffin producer, engineer, chief cook and bottle washer Sergei Kvitko, a fine pianist himself and one of the best in the business." Fanfare Magazine

  • "Blue Griffin's engineering is up to the label's highest standards, which is saying a lot." Classics Today

NEW MUSIC

Blue Griffin is dedicated to recording and promoting new music and closely collaborating with living composers, Our studio has been honored to host such prominent contemporary composers as Ricky Ian Gordon, Lowell Liebermann, Steven Bryant, John Mackey, Ricardo Lorenz, William Horne, Jenni Brandon, Carter Pann, Jon Magnussen, Thomas Osborne, Charles Ruggiero, David Amram and many others.

SERGEI KVITKO, producer & sound engineer

Sergei at Magale.jpg

Sergei Kvitko’s career is as diverse as it is successful. As a pianist, Mr. Kvitko has captured the attention of music critics with his “polished pianism… glorious Horowitzian three-dimensional perspective” (Gramophone Magazine), “masterful, intuitive playing… arresting artistry…  an iconoclastic sense for rubato rhythm and phrasing” (Fanfare Magazine), and has been praised for his “luminous touch… warm, round sound… plenty of brilliance” as well as “a natural, appealing musicality and sensual understanding of piano tone” (The Chronicle-Herald).  American Record Guide placed his recording of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition “among the best ever made” and included it on its coveted Critics’ Choice List. His critically acclaimed 2021 CD “Mozart. Post Scriptum” with Madrid Soloists Chamber Orchestra was praised as “an absolute explosion of creativity for Mr. Kvitko” (EarRelevant, Atlanta). The album has also won The American Prize in Piano Performance (Concerto). His 2023 album “Schubert by Candlelight: Live in Madrid” was released by Reference Recordings label and received such accolades as “beautifully executed and easily joins the best currently available” (American Record Guide) and “outstanding recital… ranked among the best Schubert piano releases in years” (Fanfare Magazine). In 2013 Mr. Kvitko made his New York City debut with a solo recital at Carnegie Hall that “was met with rousing applause, bravos, and a standing ovation” (New York Concert Review). He made solo, chamber and orchestral appearances in the United States, Canada, Ireland, Spain, Italy, Austria, Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

 As a composer he gathered multiple awards for his incidental music for the production of Steven Dietz’s play “Dracula.” Lawrence Cosentino of City Pulse wrote: “Kvitko wove a borderline insane level of care and sophistication into every bar of his score even when you can barely hear it,” and Fanfare Magazine called it “a well-conceived, executed, and imaginative score… entertaining, powerful, witty.” Other compositions include incidental music for Tennessee Williams’ play “The Glass Menagerie” as well as many transcriptions and arrangements. His cadenzas for Mozart’s Concerto in D Minor were called “spectacular, to say the least” (Pizzicato Magazine, Germany)

 What makes Kvitko’s career truly unique, is that his artistic accomplishments are balanced by his reputation as an internationally sought-after classical recording engineer and producer of the highest caliber, declared by Fanfare Magazine as “one of the best in the business,” and dubbed a “recording wizard” by New York Concert Review. Gramophone Magazine stated that “as engineer, he makes magic,” while American Record Guide praised his work as a ”consistent stream of exceptionally enjoyable recordings.” He is a Latin Grammy-nominated producer in Best Classical Album category. His recording of Carter Pann’s piece Mechanics was a finalist for Pulitzer Prize in Music. CDs produced and engineered by Sergei Kvitko have been favorably reviewed by national and international publications such as Fanfare Magazine,  BBC Music, Flute World, Clarinet Magazine, Clavier, Percussion and Strings Magazine among many others, earning praises such as “superbly well recorded” (International Record Guide, UK), “vividly detailed, vibrant sonics” (Gramophone, UK), “beautifully balanced and warmly atmospheric” (Gramophone, UK),  “the recording is close to ideal – rich, but clear, truthful and immediate” (American Record Guide), “larger-than-life recording that sounds fabulous at virtually any volume level” (Strings Magazine), “warm and immediate sound” (The Strad).

 Sergei Kvitko was born in Russia and began studying music at the age of six. After receiving the highest musical education there, he came to the United States to pursue a Doctor of Musical Arts degree at Michigan State University, where he studied with Ralph Votapek. He is a voting member of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (GRAMMY).

MORE INFO ON SERGEI KVITKO’s WEBSITE