A MUSIC ARCHIVE UNIQUE IN THE WORLD
Lotoro’s project is unique in the world in terms of broadness, orderliness and completeness. There are other collections of music written in concentration camps, but there isn’t an archive of all concentrationary music written from 1933 to 1953 in Lager, Gulag and in Japanese, African and Asian camps.
With the perseverance of a scholar, Francesco Lotoro transcribes, digitalizes, collects and brings back to life these scores, trying to philologically recreate them from materials that are often seriously damaged and compromised.
SCORES
More than 8,000 published or unreleased scores and separate parts, on paper or digital copies, that were recovered during his journeys and meetings with relatives of the musicians.
MICROFILM
Invaluable testimonies are meticulously archived on microfilm, safeguarding them against the erosive effects of time.
DOCUMENTS
12,500 documents about music production in concentration camps from 1933 to 1953 (digital files, diaries, notes, music books).
PUBLICATIONS
3,000 publications documenting concentrationary music production from 1933 to 1953.
AUDIO RECORDINGS
Lotoro has personally financed the production of 27 CDs of concentrationary music. Through this initiative, he ensures the preservation of this unique repertoire, preventing it from fading into obscurity and giving it a renewed voice.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS
Hundreds of hours of recordings capturing meetings with survivors and their heirs.
A RACE AGAINST TIME
Francesco has hundreds of leads to pursue, but every minute lost diminishes the likelihood of him uncovering music that remains lost, and restoring it to the collective memory of humanity. His work has become increasingly urgent as the last generation of survivors rapidly fades away.
ARCHIVE AND LIBRARY: A WORK IN PROGRESS
The archive and library of the ILMC Foundation, which constitute the Music Sciences Library and Media, registered in the Registry of Italian Libraries, are currently undergoing inventorying, cataloging, and digitization. These operations, conducted by experts, are progressing at varying paces and stages depending on the type of materials. Some items, due to their uniqueness, require particularly complex work. The following Excel contains materials from the Music Sciences Library and Media that have already been inventoried and included in the public catalogs for online consultation. This type of public digital cataloging is essential for the data belonging to an archive and a library that fall under the protection of the Ministry of Culture for their significant historical and cultural value. In this file users can easily access information about already available materials and then search for them in aforementioned public online catalogs, including Italian ones such as OPAC Polo Terra di Bari (territorial) and OPAC SBN of the National Library System as well as international MetaOPACs such as the German KVK (Karlsruher Virtuelle Katalog), which provide accessibility information. This file will be regularly updated to reflect the progress of the inventorying and cataloging process.