James Steven Ginsburg is an American music producer. He is the founder, producer and president of Cedille Records, a classical label, which was launched in 1989 when Ginsburg was a student at the University of Chicago.
Ginsburg was raised in New York City's Upper East Side, where he began collecting records of classical music at an early age. While attending college he also immersed himself in the music genre, taking charge of classical programming at the mixed-format radio station which the university sponsored. Before graduation, he began reviewing classical recordings for American Record Guide magazine. In 1989, Ginsburg launched a record label, Cedille Records, to focus on classical music produced by artists and composers in Chicago. The label is based in the Edgewater neighborhood of the city. Encouraged by the critical and commercial response to his early recordings, Ginsburg abandoned law school in his second year to devote himself full-time to Cedille. Ginsburg has produced a large proportion of the label's recordings. He also helped to establish a non-profit foundation in 1994, The Chicago Classical Recording Foundation, to operate the label.
Recognition
In 2009, The Chicago Tribune nominated Ginsburg as "Chicagoan of the Year," writing, "Let's hear it for James Ginsburg. The Chicagoan is one of the last independent entrepreneurs in classical recording, a man who has stuck to his artistic vision and made a success of it at a time of market shrinkage and industry downsizing." In 2010, Ginsburg won the Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier Charitable Foundation for the Arts Achievement Award. In making the award, the Foundation wrote, "We applaud Jim for seeing that Chicago has an abundance of stellar musicians. With his recording projects, Jim believes he can advance musicians' careers and serve the listening public in equal measure." Cedille Records' output has won a number of Grammys, including a 2008 win for "Best Chamber Music Performance" by the contemporary music sextet Eighth Blackbird.
Personal life
In 1995, he married Lisa Brauston of Shaker Heights, Ohio; the ceremony was officiated by his mother. Brauston is an art historian. After a divorce, he married opera singer, composer and vocal coach Patrice Michaels.
