What Is The Musical Heritage Society?
The Musical Heritage Society began over 60 years ago, based on the concept that recording classical music was a specialized craft, and that the larger “record business" held back important recordings and artists. Dr. Michael Naida created MHS to offer recordings directly to customers who loved and appreciated classical music, combining a record label with a specialty music store.
We continue to take that idea very seriously, as we hope to offer lovers of classical music and jazz a home where we can offer access to classical music and jazz that won’t get put on streaming playlists or recommended with algorithms on the major streaming services, but still features exceptional artists making incredible music. By using the current technology to reach more customers than ever before, we hope to make The Musical Heritage Society a place where music lovers can come and find a society dedicated to music they enjoy.
OUR HISTORY
In the 60 years since our founding, Musical Heritage has made their own recordings on the Musical Heritage label and licensed recordings from fine classical and world music labels in Europe. The Musical Heritage Society “record store” became a nationwide direct-mail service that offered recordings to customers.
In the early 1970s, MHS’s catalog became The Musical Heritage Review, based on regular contributions from an English professor, David Greene. Professor Greene wrote to MHS complaining about skimpy liner notes on their LPs and ended up writing nearly a dozen essays for every issue of the Review for almost fifteen years.
In the 1980s, new owners added significant new classical offerings, and created Jazz Heritage Society for expanding jazz offerings, with a series of unique JHS recordings, many of which were nominated for Grammy Awards. During this time, MHS grew to become the largest classical music and jazz record club in the United States.
After a 10 year absence, the Musical Heritage Society is returning as a web-based service, providing downloads of music from the Musical Heritage label, as well as options to stream Musical and Jazz Heritage Society recordings. And we hope to restore nearly every written essay and article that appeared in the Musical Heritage Review.