Telarc International Corporation

Telarc International Corporation is an independent record label, based in Cleveland, Ohio, United States, and founded in 1977 by two classically trained musicians and former teachers, Jack Renner and Robert Woods. Originally a classical music-only label, the label has had a long association with Ohio's two most famous orchestras: the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cleveland Orchestra, as well as the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. Telarc has since released music from other styles of music including jazz, blues and country music. In 1996, Telarc merged with another independent label, Heads Up, now a Telarc subsidiary.

In late 2005 both Telarc and Heads Up were bought by Concord Records. Today both labels operate as semi-autonomous units on the Concord Music Group.

The Telarc Sound

Telarc is noted for the high quality of its recordings, encapsulated in the slogan "The Telarc Sound". Its engineers are highly regarded within the recording business, and have led Telarc to 40 Grammy Awards. In 2004 it received the "Label Of The Year" Award from Gramophone Magazine. Telarc was one of the first labels to begin recording music with a 20-bit analog-to-digital converter (ADC) in the late 1980s and has used 24-bit formats since 1996. Currently, the majority of Telarc's releases are (generally hybrid) SACDs based on DSD recordings.