Her albums sold more than 100,000 copies and inspired Heymann to start the recording label “HK” to promote other Hong Kong Philharmonic performances.
After HK, he moved on to create other recording labels and production companies, earning him worldwide fame as a recording artist.
The German entrepreneur will visit the Jacobs School of Music at 2 p.m. today in Ford-Crawford Hall for a question and answer session focused on his involvement in the music industry.
Heymann established his most recent label, Naxos, as a “world leader in music education, sponsorship and the provision of recorded classical music to all,” according to a news release from the School of Music.
Naxos, launched in 1987, took the lead in the music industry by altering how classical music is presented and marketed. The label has one of the “largest and fastest growing catalogues of unduplicated repertoire available anywhere,” according to the company’s website. Naxos currently has more than 2,500 titles.
The beginnings of Naxos came from a different company Heymann launched which sold cameras, watches and audio equipment, including Bose loudspeakers and Revox tape recorders.
To boost sales of his audio equipment in Hong Kong, Heymann organized classical music concerts sponsored by Bose and Revox. These concerts eventually led to his involvement with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra. It was there that he met his wife Nishizaki, the Japanese violinist who played as a soloist with the Hong Kong Philharmonic during its first professional season.
Heymann decided to make recordings with Nishizaki. Among the first recordings was “The Butterfly Lovers Concerto,” according to the Naxos website. The recording sold hundreds of thousands of copies across Asia.
This was the impetus for Heymann starting HK, a record label dedicated to Chinese symphonic music. That label eventually grew into what Naxos is today.
The company has since developed into a full-fledged classical label that offers a range of classical music to beginners and collectors, with little to no duplication of repertoire, according to its website.
Audrey Perkins
