ILMC FOUNDATION

Institute of Concentration Camp Musical Literature

“The music created in captivity, from the first Lager to the last Gulag, annihilates totalitarian ideologies, strengthens the ideals and introduces us to better days. The musician does not set the Lager to music nor does he elevate deportation to a poetic element; he rather ideologically destroys the Camp through music. In fact, the deported musician aspired to make the walls of the Camp collapse by singing, playing and writing music "

Francesco Lotoro

ILMC Foundation

The Foundation Institute of Concentration Camp Musical Literature is a non-profit organization based in Barletta (Apulia), established by notarial deed in 2014 on the initiative of a small group of founding members—Francesco Lotoro, Grazia Tiritiello, Daniele Barchetta, and Paolo Candido—with the aim of protecting and enhancing the extraordinary heritage of music written in concentration camps and other places of military and civilian captivity around the world between 1933 and 1953. This music was collected by the Apulian pianist and composer Francesco Lotoro over thirty years of research, with the aim of reviving it for humanity. This immeasurable artistic and human legacy will be the heart of the Citadel of Concentration Camp Music , the largest hub in the world dedicated to the music produced in the Camps; a place where the "dream" of Francesco Lotoro, President of the Foundation, becomes an artistic, cultural, and spiritual treasure for the world, a story for everyone.

The ILMC Foundation—relying on authoritative scientific and artistic partnerships—has taken on the task of caring for this heritage by conserving, transcribing, digitizing, performing, and recording the thousands of musical scores that—pages unjustly torn from the book of collective history—have remained hidden from public knowledge and enjoyment for over 70 years. Thanks to Francesco Lotoro and the ILMC Foundation, this music has crossed the barbed-wire fence of the Camps, revealing a multifaceted universe of feelings and emotions, as well as great talents and masterpieces, finally available to present and future generations.

The Institute of Concentrationary Musical Literature Foundation is registered in the Register of Legal Persons at the Prefecture – Territorial Office of the Government of Barletta-Andria-Trani.