About naïve

Created in 1998 with the inspiration of Patrick Zelnik (former CEO of Virgin France), naïve has the ambition to develop a multi-cultural label for all styles of music and formats (records, books, DVD, and other formats).

Soon after its creation, naïve acquired the label Auvidis, the leader of France's classical music market and responsible for such phenomenal best-sellers as Farinelli and Tous les Matins du Monde (Jordi Savall). In 2000 naïve further expanded its classical roster with the acquisition of Opus 111, one of the most prestigious early music labels - specializing in music of the Italian baroque - built with passion by Yolanta Skura.

The prestigious roster of naïve classique artists includes Laurence Equilbey / Accentus Chamber Choir, Rinaldo Alessandrini / Concerto Italiano, Jean-Christophe Spinosi / Ensemble Matheus, Christophe Rousset / Les Talens Lyriques, Denis Raisin Dadre / Doulce Mémoire, Antonio Florio / Cappella de'Turchini, Lise de la Salle, Maria Bayo, Sandrine Piau, Gérard Lesne, Anne Gastinel, Grigory Sokolov, Fazil Say, Sergey Khachatryan, François-Frédéric Guy, Hopkinson Smith, Rolf Lislevand, Quatuor Mosaïques, Arditti String Quartet and the composers Kaija Saariaho and Pascal Dusapin.

Naïve also promotes the wonderful back catalogs of Jordi Savall and Fabio Biondi and is linked to important musical partners, especially Radio France (a live recording collection with Kurt Masur, Bernard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Kurt Sanderling and Evgeny Svetlanov, among others) and the piano festival La Roque d'Antheron (DVDs).

Since 2001, in collaboration with the Istituto per I Beni Musicali in Piemonte, naïve has been developing one of the greatest recording ventures of our time: The Vivaldi Edition, which is presenting more than 100 recordings over the next fifteen years, including the world premieres of several operas.

Besides classical music, naïve has also established a leading position in the pop repertoire with artists such as Carla Bruni, Muse, Pink Martini, Mirwais, Perry Blake, Le Tone, Marianne Faithful, and in the world music/jazz sections with Angélique Ionatos, Raul Paz, Thierry "Titi" Robin and Baptiste Trotignon. Since October 2004, naïve and andante are partners. Founded in April 2001, andante pursues a mission of advancing the cause of classical music, both online and on record. Under this agreement, naïve will take on operation of the web site and production of CDs under the andante brand.