andante is a new type of classical music venture. Its aim is to document and preserve the world's recorded classical musical heritage and to become the definitive online resource for information about classical music and opera.

• Over the next decade, the andante label will release close to one thousand compact discs, each set luxuriously packaged with historically significant remasterings and previously unreleased material.
• The andante Web site features an array of informational and educational resources, live and recorded performances, professional services and a magazine section.
  

The andante Collection of Compact Discs:

The andante label will release close to one thousand CDs grouped into four series: Great Composers, Great Interpreters, Great Orchestras and Great Operas. Sources span the history of recordings, from the 78 RPM era to present-day digital recording. All CDs can be purchased in the boutique section of the andante web site and will also be available at select retail outlets.

The andante releases bring the excitement of the Golden Age of recordings back to life in elegant volumes of three or four CDs. Each volume contains a comprehensive booklet, with specially commissioned essays, introductory notes by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Tim Page, excerpts from Macmillan's New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians (2nd Edition) and original illustrations by contemporary artist Donald Colley.

andante is also committed to offering the finest audio quality. The andante releases are enhanced by our sophisticated CAP 440 audio restoration process, developed by a team of musicians, musicologists and recording experts at Art & Son Studio in Paris.

The andante Web site:

The mission of the andante Web site is to provide a single, convenient location for in-depth information, stimulating ideas and opinions, and exclusive performances in the world of classical music. The site consists of six sections: magazine, calendar, reference, musicroom, directories and boutique.

Because andante.com is a work in progress, more content and capabilities will be added to the site through an ongoing process of evaluation and improvement.

Principal Shareholders/Founders:

The president of andante is Alain Coblence, an attorney who has been active in musical affairs for many years, most recently as the founder of the European Mozart Foundation. The chairman of andante is Pierre Bergé, former chairman of Yves Saint Laurent and former head of the Opéra de Paris. They are joined in the enterprise by Jean Francis Bretelle of Oléron Participations, a French venture capital firm.

andante is developing partnerships with some of the world's leading musical institutions, including major orchestras and music festivals in Europe and the United States, as well as research institutions that will license to andante their archives of printed documents and recordings. andante's advisory board includes such distinguished musicians as Pierre Boulez and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau and the musicologists Jean-Jacques Nattiez and Henry-Louis de La Grange, among others.