Planet M Records is a Seattle-based, independent, artist-led record label, specializing in Classical music with an emphasis on new music, co-founded by musicians Michael Jinsoo Lim and Melia Watras.
 

Michael Jinsoo Lim, Director and Co-Founder
Violinist Michael Jinsoo Lim has been praised for his “showmanship to spare,” “terrific swagger” and “delicious abandon” by Gramophone, hailed by the Los Angeles Times as a “conspicuously accomplished champion of contemporary music,” and described as “a tour de force” and “bewitching” by the Seattle Times. Concertmaster and solo violinist for the internationally-acclaimed Pacific Northwest Ballet, Lim’s solo appearances with the company include performances in Paris, New York City, Los Angeles, Washington DC and Seattle, in concertos by Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Bach, Max Richter and others. Lim was co-founder of the award-winning Corigliano Quartet, with whom he toured and recorded for twenty years and appeared on over a dozen albums, including the groups’s Naxos label CD which was honored as one of The New Yorker’s Ten Best Classical Recordings of the Year. His discography can be found on Naxos, Planet M, Sono Luminus, DreamWorks, Albany, Bridge, CRI, Bayer Records, RIAX and New Focus. His recent solo album Kinetic has been highly acclaimed by the press. Gramophone said “This intelligently assembled recital of contemporary solo violin music provides a vivid portrait of Michael Jinsoo Lim’s first-class musicianship and technical finesse,” while noting that “Lim’s reading is thrilling in its virtuosity yet offers charm and a sense of fun as well.” The WholeNote called it a “remarkable solo album” and “a fascinating recital of quite brilliant playing by Lim.” Lim has served on the faculty of the Banff Centre, taught at Indiana University as a guest professor, and currently serves on the faculty of Cornish College of the Arts.

Melia Watras, Co-Founder
Melia Watras has been hailed by Gramophone as “an artist of commanding and poetic personality” and by The Strad as “staggeringly virtuosic.” As a violist/composer/collaborative artist, she has sustained a distinguished career as a creator and facilitator of new music and art.

Watras’s much-lauded work as a recording artist spans nearly three decades. Her albums have been described as “an exquisite world in which beauty and dreams flirt with sorrow” (The WholeNote), “a rare balance of emotional strength and technical delicacy” (The American Record Guide), “a beautiful celebration of 21st century viola music” (The Strad), “astounding and both challenging and addictive to listen to” (Strings), and “pure, poignant, powerful in their immediacy” (Berlin-based music magazine 15 Questions). In addition to her 10 solo albums, Watras appears on 13 others as violist of the acclaimed Corigliano Quartet.

Her compositions have been performed throughout the US and in Europe, broadcast on National Public Radio’s Performance Today, and can be found on the albums The almond tree duos; Kinetic; Partita Party; Play/Write; String Masks; 3 Songs for Bellows, Buttons and Keys; Firefly Songs; Schumann Resonances and 26.

Watras is currently Professor of Viola at the University of Washington, where she holds the Ruth Sutton Waters Endowed Professorship and for 13 years served as Chair of Strings. In 2024, the American Viola Society presented Watras with the Maurice W. Riley Award, for her distinguished contributions to the viola as a performer, composer, teacher and leader. She has penned articles for the Journal of the American Viola Society, The Strad (online), Strings and the Juilliard Journal.